Bastion in the Storm
by YourGuardianAngel08
Summary: Superhero life is dangerous but that doesn't mean the real world leaves the World's Greatest Defender alone even after he retires. Peter doesn't realize that until he gets a phone call from Morgan. In an instant, his world is thrown into disarray because this time it wasn't a universe ending threat to deal with, it was a car accident. Irondad/Spideyson; whump!Tony
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone,**

**Yup well, like I said, there would eventually be some little tidbit that would cause me to write something else. It just happened to come significantly earlier than I thought it would. So here's the backstory (for anyone reading) I needed to write something a bit slower, a reflective segment for a character I was working on and I was having a lot of trouble with it. I kept wanting to put in the wrong emotion or something that didn't make sense. As I was working on it, I was thinking about what I would do for other characters I've written for and this story formed.**

**I'm warning you now, this is more of a character study than a story with action and its not about superhero stuff, its my take on what would happen if something not superhero-y happened.**

**With that in mind, I ended up with this. **

**As with all of my stories, this is Irondad/Spideyson so if you don't like that type of relationship, please stop reading now, if you do then feel free to continue on with the story :) And it follows in the timeline I've been working in for my other stories but its completely at the end.**

**I hope you like it and for anyone who happens to be reading and commented on the last chapter for "The Cost of Bravery" - I said my thank yous at the end :)**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Peter's phone buzzed against the metal table. He had been so focused on what he was doing that the abruptness startled him. He jumped and jarred the delicate work his was doing on his converter. Not to mention burned his finger on the liquid metal left over from the incomplete solder. Sticking his finger into his mouth in an attempt to numb the burn, Peter carefully put down the soldering iron and grabbed his phone, turning it over and looking at the caller id. When he saw Happy's name an aborted note of anxiety shot through his mind, Happy normally didn't call him. Plus, it was late so it had to be important which didn't help his unease. But he shook off the feeling, it was probably nothing and if anything, the call was a good reminder that he should get some sleep so he accepted and pushed the phone into his shoulder as he started to pull his equipment together. He tried to be as casual as possible, answering, "Hey, Happy, what's up?"

"Peter?" The voice at the other end of the line wobbled on his name, thick with tears, and the telltale hiccup of profound distress. And it was definitely not Happy.

Peter froze. His hair pricked up on the back of his neck and the notes of anxiety built in his mind before he answered with trepidation masquerading as composure, "Hey Morgan, what are you still doing up? What's wrong?" He told himself it was just a nightmare, the little boy had called him for that before. Unfortunately that illusion only lasted for a few moments.

"It's daddy…he got hurt really bad…" The younger boy's voice trailed off as sniffles echoed through their connection.

Peter swallowed back the sudden onslaught of confusion and fear as those few discordant anxiety-ridden notes built into a crescendo. He dropped his convertor, missing the cracking noise as the delicate materials were shaken lose beyond repair because his world instantly boiled down to that scant piece of horrible information. Peter somehow forced his voice to be steady when he asked, "What happened, buddy?"

A crackling cut across the connection, like Morgan had wiped his nose with his hand and scrapped it along the microphone before he answered, "A ascident….a c–car t-hit him when he was comin' home."

"When?" Peter started to move, his work forgotten. He could finish his project later, this needed to take precedence. As he ran, he realized his little brother hadn't answered and he quickly repeated, "When Morgan? Please, I need to know."

A choked sob made his heart clench before Morgan whined an answer, "I don't…I don't know, 'm sorry. 'm scared…and I needed ta call you." Then more rustling sputtered through the phone.

Peter pushed himself faster. For Morgan to be this upset, something was really wrong and Peter's anxiety pushed dangerously close to fear as he fought to keep his voice calm, "I know you're scared, Morgan but it's going to be okay. I'm gonna come home and we're gonna figure out what happened and make sure dad's okay together, alright?" Peter heard an answering hum on the end of the line but it was sandwiched between badly held back sobs.

The overwhelming distress forced Peter to squash his own. He knew he needed to get Morgan focused on something else, so he asked, "Where are you?"

As he waited for the answer, his feet pounded up the stairs of his apartment. The thought to slow down and be a little quieter crossed his mind but as immediately as it came, he pushed it away.

While still tearful, Morgan's answer was a little more sure, "'venger's place."

Peter breathed a little easier, at least he wasn't at some random hospital, "Good. Morgan, listen to me, I'm coming home right now, but I'm still at school so its going to take me a little time, okay?" Peter swallowed hard before he lied with everything he had, "It's gonna be okay, everything's going to be okay. I'll be there as soon as I can." Then he thought of something else as he dug the key out of his pocket, "Where's your mom?"

Morgan stuttered his answer, "Sh…she's comin' home soon. She was in Japan for neg…oc…a'ions."

Peter cursed as he pushed into his room, he had forgotten she was there this week. Praying that someone else was with him, Peter asked, "Is Happy there?"

"Ya…yah."

Peter let out a whine of relief, at least someone else was there and he made sure to emphasize that, "Okay, you stay with Happy and I'll be there as soon as I can, I promise, okay Morgan?"

"Yah…" Morgan whined again.

Peter pressed end on the call.

Once silence slipped around him, Peter stumbled. His heart was pounding in his chest and he had to put his hand on the wall to steady himself as a few tears escaped. He worked hard to catch his breath before reminding himself that he couldn't do this right now, he needed to get home. Steeling his resolve, he sucked in an unsteady breath and hiccupped it back out as Morgan's fear echoed around his skull. He pressed away from the wall and stumbled to his closet.

He needed to go home.

Swallowing back everything Morgan's tearfulness had dredged up, Peter slipped his webshooters on and as the nanotech crawled around him, he was thankful he had brought his upgraded suit. Once he was set, he slipped out the window. Laying his head against the cool brick wall, Peter took a deep breath before he leapt into the air and told his suit to create a booster, like what he had seen his dad use a thousand times. It was the first time he had used it outside the practice area and it still felt incredibly weird. It had been Tony's idea after his mishap with the knife and honestly, Peter hated using it. But that didn't matter right now, all that mattered was getting home as fast as possible. He corrected his horizons and his voice wavered as he ordered, "Karen, plot a course home."

Ever positive, Karen answered back immediately, "Of course, Peter." Before she had even finished her statement, a red guiding line appeared on his display.

Peter let the reassuring voice ground him and as soon as he felt secure in his course, he added, "Karen, please call Morgan back."

* * *

It took him about forty-five minutes to make it home.

He started running as soon as he touched down, his suit melting away as he moved. He knew the way to the med bay a little too well by this point and it wasn't hard to find it on autopilot. Morgan had cried most of the time they had been on the phone. Peter had tried to distract him, asking him about preschool and stuff he had been doing with his parents while he had been at school but it only seemed to help Morgan's mood a little. For Peter, it had been exhausting.

Still, he ran.

The rooms and various conveniences of the Compound flew passed him as he sprinted and he only slowed once he made it to the wing he was looking for.

Peter jogged down the hallway before he skid around the corner, the waiting room opening up before him. Straightaway, he caught sight of Happy sitting in one of the chairs but awkwardly leaned to the side. Without question Peter knew why and he was hit by the overwhelming urge to see his brother, yelling, "Morgan!" Peter watched the little brown head shoot out from beside Happy before he threw himself off the chair. Peter took a stuttered step forward before he jogged the few feet he needed to get close enough for Morgan to launch himself into his arms.

Peter caught him easily, wrapping his arms around him while Morgan wrapped his arms and his legs tight, burying his head in Peter's shoulder. Peter rubbed his hand up and down his back a few times as the hiccupping sobs he had heard on the way over started again. Only this time, Peter didn't have the distraction of the flight to keep him preoccupied and his eyes welled up. He wrapped his arms a little tighter around his brother and hunched his shoulders, instinctively trying everything he could to shield him from…some threat. Unfortunately, that just made Morgan cry harder, which made it more difficult for Peter to continue to swallow back his own tears. It was taking most of his considerable ability to do that, which left Peter awkwardly standing in the middle of the waiting room, clutching Morgan and staring at the ceiling. Thankfully, Happy seemed to realize what was going on because Peter unexpectedly felt hands on his shoulders steering him toward the chairs. Peter had the fleeting thought that he had wanted to ask what had happened or what they knew but he couldn't. And at this point, his full attention needed to be on Morgan anyway.

Eventually, the little boy cried himself into exhaustion. He wasn't asleep but he had shoved his thumb in his mouth and was dozing against Peter's chest. Peter knew it had taken Pepper and Tony ages to break him of that habit and he knew he shouldn't let him do it but he figured just this once, it would be okay. As his tears slowly dried, the room lapsed into silence. It was significantly more calming than the tears, but it left Peter to finally consider what the hell was going on. And he was still terrified to ask. A part of him wanted to hide from whatever had happened and just wait to see his dad but the larger part of his mind reminded him that was the cowardly way to go about it. If he was going to help, he needed to be informed. When he finally won his argument against himself and looked up, Happy was watching him with a miserable, knowing frown. That pushed Peter over the edge and he summoned all the courage he had left, "What happened?"

Happy's frown deepened before he explained, "Tony was at the tech conference at NYU this week and tonight he was coming back from dinner with a few of the organizers when a drunk driver ran a red…Tony didn't see him coming."

Peter closed his eyes tightly before he asked, "Do they…do they know if he's gonna be alright?" Peter could hear the fear in his voice and knew Happy recognized it too.

Happy's voice was apologetic but firm, "They don't, Peter. He was in bad shape when they finally got to him and no one has been able to give us a straight answer about what they're expecting."

Peter nodded his acceptance but without any real answers a terrifying chunk of that information just raised more questions he wasn't even sure how to ask. The only thing he could comprehend was the fact that the man who had taken on the most dangerous being in the universe was fighting for his life because of a drunk driver. That thought spiraled around his head, knocking against the sides of his skull until it hurt and all he could do was lay his cheek on Morgan's head where it was tucked into his neck. He could feel the tears pressing at the back of his eyes, dangerously close to falling and his voice broke when he finally flicked his eyes back up to Happy, "What do you think?"

Happy watched him for a moment before he looked at the wall across him and answered, "I think your dad is always willing to fight and I know he wants more than anything to be here for his family, so I think he's going to be okay."

Peter appreciated that assessment more than he could say and he closed his eyes for a long minute before he eventually whispered, "What happened to the guy who hit him?"

Happy frowned and fixed him with a look of suspicion, "Peter, I don't kn…"

But Peter's eyes snapped open and he cut him off, something he rarely did, his voice a demand wreathed in civility, "Happy, please, just tell me."

Happy sighed but gave him the truth, "He walked away. He needed some stitches and he was limping but he walked away."

Peter felt sudden, intense anger, bordering on rage, twist in his gut. The immediate response shook him to his core and he tried to bury it because it was the wrong reaction and he knew it. Still, he wasn't able to hide all of it when he ground out, "Was he arrested?"

Happy answered quickly, "Not right away but only because he needed to go to the hospital himself, he'll be under police guard while he's there. No one's going to let the man who hit an Avenger walk away."

Peter's anger eased a bit when he heard that but not enough to keep the acidic bite out of the back of his throat. Still, he knew that wasn't right and he suppressed it, buried the urge to think about the man who had done this. Instead, he let his mind wander to the events of the last few hours. As he played them over, he kept coming back to Morgan's response and the more he thought about it, he couldn't help but be a little surprised by the sheer intensity of it. It didn't seem like that should have been the response from a five-year old. So breaking the tense silence, Peter quietly asked, "What got him so worked up?"

Happy frowned and asked, "What do you mean?"

Peter elaborated, "Morgan's really upset, a lot more upset than he probably should be given how little we actually know about what's going on. So what does he know that's got him so upset?"

Happy sighed as he understood what Peter meant and he explained, "He had a nightmare last night. He called Tony to talk and they were on the phone when Tony got hit. Morgan heard some of the crash before the phone cut out." Happy glanced down at the younger Stark before he continued, "I don't think he understood what happened but he kept trying to call back and it wouldn't go through. It scared him and there wasn't much I could do to calm him down. He kept saying you would know how to talk to Tony but by that point I was trying to coordinate with the police and EMS and he got sick of waiting so he took my personal phone before I could let you know what was going on." He looked down at him with a fond expression, "He gets more and more like Tony every day." Happy glanced back up at Peter before he explained, "I brought him here because he knows its where people go when they get hurt and he wouldn't go back to his room."

Peter felt tears well up in his eyes again as he pulled Morgan a little closer, horrified by the idea that his little brother had to hear that. And suddenly, his own mind flashed back to Ben laying bloody and gasping on the street. As the realization and the memory meshed, Peter felt his tears finally track down his cheeks, slipping into Morgan's hair. No one should ever have to have that knowledge and Peter knew the pain that was associated with it. He was floored by that insight and he didn't know what to say, so he didn't say anything. He didn't trust himself to.

Happy watched Tony's sons with profound sadness. It would have been a strange thing ten years ago to imagine Tony with kids and now he couldn't imagine ever seeing Tony without them. But that also made their pain markedly harder to watch. Happy sent up a silent prayer for his friend, reminding whoever was listening that neither one of these two deserved to lose their father. But as that reflective thought slipped through Happy's mind, something more practical ultimately took its place. He turned to Peter and asked, "Did you tell anyone at school you were leaving?"

Peter stared at him for a moment, trying to remember the details of leaving. Then he finally shook his head before he mumbled, "I didn't even finish putting away my semester project…I'm not totally sure if I locked my door. I went out the window."

Happy stood and laid his hand on Peter's shoulder, "I'm going to send someone to take care of that, then I'm going to go call and get you excused for however long its going to take for Tony to wake up. I don't think it's going to be an issue once I mention his name." He paused as he thought of something else, "I'll get your work for the rest of the semester too, that way you could maybe stay relatively on track."

Peter appreciated the positivity and the offer to deal with the things he hadn't wanted to consider and he whispered, "Thanks, Happy."

Happy brushed it off, "No problem, kid. Keep your brother company, will yah?"  
Peter tucked Morgan in a little more securely to his chest before he easily answered, "Sure."

Happy gave him another sad smile before he pulled out his phone and stepped out of the waiting room.

For a moment, as soon as Happy left, Peter felt terrifyingly alone.

But the longer he sat there, he realized it wasn't as bad as he thought and honestly, it gave him a chance to take a breath. It was shallow and painful and it made his heart constrict in agony but it reminded him that as long as he was sitting here, his dad was alive. And that meant everything. It gave him something to focus on. Something to start building his walls with. Because he could feel the torrent knocking at the edges of his mind and at some point throughout this incredibly fast two hours, he had unconsciously decided that he was going to have to make sure he was a rock for his brother, which meant he was going to have to be stronger than he had ever been before. And that meant no one could know how frightened he actually was. He would have to take this a day at a time.

And he could do that.

He could do one day at a time.

Hell, if it meant Morgan would feel safe and his dad would survive, he would do it agonizing minute by agonizing minute until this was over.

* * *

**So there you have it!**

**What happens next? You'll just have to tune in and see :) Feel free to tell me what you thought in the reviews.**

**And as promised, I want to say thank you to:**

**\- the amazing Proud Hollander, Thank you so much! And I understand that completely! I have significantly more unfinished stories on my computer than I really want to admit, it's hard to post stuff sometimes. But in my totally throwaway opinion, you should think about posting them. That's so awesome that you've already planned to see it three times and happy birthday to your brother :) I totally get that and I'm sorry :( the good thing about school is that it ends (and I'm really glad you put the jk in there because I was getting worried reading that!). Thank you so much for commenting and being so awesome, you're totally amazing and I hope you enjoy (enjoyed? - I'm not sure of the time difference) Far From Home!**

**\- the awesome Guest, Thanks so much! **

**\- the fantastic n8163, I'm so glad you enjoyed the characters and the story kept you hooked. I have been having a good break too - thank you for saying that :) **

**\- the wonderful JohnGilbertVampirehunter, Thanks :) I'm glad you liked that ending!**

**\- the spectacular lotravengersninjago15, Thank you for taking the time to comment on it, I'm glad that you appreciated the bit with Michelle, I was actually really proud of myself for that one so I'm happy it worked. I really like her character and I'm hoping they explore it a bit more in Far From Home (I'm seeing it on Saturday!)**

**Well that's it for now!**

**I hope you all have a wonderful day/night and stay creative!**

**-Lily**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everyone!**

**So here's the next chapter for you :) **

**I wanted to say thank you to those of you who followed and favorited, its always nice to see that. And as has become my tradition, I want to say thank you to:**

**\- the lovely Tonyfan (love that by the way), I can't tell you yet but I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far! Thanks so much and I definitely will.**

**\- the talented Proud Hollander, I totally knew you wouldn't and I'm SO EXCITED to see it, I actually asked one of my good friends about whether some of my theories panned out and she wouldn't tell me so I'm glad I haven't spoiled it myself yet! Honestly, I like where you're going with your story and I'll definitely continue to read whatever you post! I'm glad you like this story so far :) And you're totally not terrible, that all I write. And I'm pretty sure half of fanfiction is just beating the crap out of your favorite characters because we don't get enough of it on the big screen. Hey that's awesome! Do you go to school year round in New Zealand? And I'm sorry, I always had older friends in school too but hopefully they stay relatively close by and phones are awesome for that! And yes, there's always fanfiction :) Thank you for being awesome!**

**\- the awesome JohnGilbertVampirehunter, Holy crap, I'm so sorry for that person and I hope her boyfriend was okay! I kind of figured that type of stuff definitely happens and for a little kid, that would not be easy to deal with. I'm glad you appreciate mature Peter and you'll just have to keep reading to find out ;) **

**\- the stupendous Guest, Thanks :) Honestly, I was debating whether or not to do that and then once I wrote it, I couldn't take it out so I'm glad it worked. As for Pepper, you'll have to wait and see ;) Thank you for commenting!**

**\- the wonderful Jade St. Jms, I'm glad you liked the beginning, thank you for saying that :) Hopefully you like this chapter too!**

**Well that's all I have for right now, thank you all so much for your support!**

**So without further ado,**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

It was the middle of the next morning when the doctors dragged themselves out of the operating theater. Nearly ten hours on their feet trying to put the broken Iron Man back together had taken its toll. And now they had to deal with what was probably the worst part of their job.

Dr. Elliot Sposek held the door open for Dr. Laura Fry and both stepped out into the waiting room, their shoes echoing against the stone floor and calling the attention of the family curled in the corner. Fry had been with the Avengers for long enough to know the only thing the they would care about and she started talking before the two even reached the small group, her voice was direct but kind, "He's still alive but he'll be in critical condition for a while longer. It's difficult to tell how long that will be because it's impossible to fully assess how much damage the impact did to his vertebrae until he wakes up but we know that all the injuries we could fix are handled." She paused for a moment before she explained the injuries, walking the line between enough detail to give them an understanding and the full procedure. She watched carefully as she did, her eyes darting between Happy and Peter, more often than not landing on Peter as he somehow coiled increasingly tighter with each new injury she listed.

Once she finished, Sposek warily added, "They should be finished moving him soon. If you want, you can see him. But I need to caution you that it is difficult to look at…" He was going to say more when Peter's abrupt movement startled him into silence.

Without hearing the warning Peter stood and started to move toward the interior of the med bay, Morgan still wrapped securely in his arms. Before he could get passed the doctors though, Sposek held his hand out and carefully said, "I'm not sure that you want to take him back there." He gestured at Morgan, his statement was commanding but it was obvious he was attempting to be polite.

Peter didn't take it that way. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and cocked his head at the man before suspiciously asking, "Why's that?"

The doctor took a deep breath before he explained, "Mr. Stark is in bad shape. Almost the entire left side of his body is broken, bruised, or both. We cleaned him up but it's still an incredibly disturbing sight. I'm not sure that you should show a five-year-old that."

Peter balked, his eyes flicking over to Fry. Her face was difficult to read but she seemed almost angry at Sposek's assessment. Knowing he wasn't going to get anything from her, Peter looked over at Happy, silently pleading for help. He was torn, he couldn't put Morgan down but he desperately needed to see his dad.

Happy watched the exchange with distain, Sposek was asking Peter to chose and Happy was not exactly excited about that. Still, he wasn't Morgan's father and he wasn't sure what Pepper or Tony would want him to do so instead, he just decided to take the choice off Peter's plate. He stepped up close enough to hold out his arms, "I'll take him, Pete. That way you can go see your dad."

Peter was reluctant to let go of Morgan but he promised himself that he was just going to confirm that Tony was still alive and then he would come back out for his brother. But subconsciously, he had other ideas and Peter clutched Morgan closer, his hand sliding into the little boy's hair as he held the back of his neck and turned slightly away from Happy. Peter felt trapped and he couldn't figure out why but he didn't want Morgan in the middle of it. The only thing he knew for sure was that he couldn't just let Happy take him, the little boy was smart enough to understand what needed to happen. Peter turned to him and whispered, "Morgan, can you go with Happy for a bit?"

Immediately, fresh tears started to track down his face before he answered in a tinny whispered, "I wanna stay wif you."

Peter's heart squeezed painfully at his request and he tried harder to convince him to go along with it, "I'll be back, buddy, it would just be for a little bit."

But then Morgan found some of his precociousness and maintained his defiance, "No, I wanna stay wif _you_."

"Morgan," Peter started, unsure of where exactly he was going with this but still talking, "I need to go see dad, okay? You need to stay here. I promise, I'll tell you all about it if you just go with Happy for right now." Unfortunately that was the wrong thing to say because Morgan's red-rimmed eyes lit up at the mention of Tony and that's what his mind seized on. He gripped Peter's shirt tightly and declared, "I'm going wif you. I wanna see daddy too."

Peter's heart dropped somehow farther than where it was already sitting in his stomach, the last thing he wanted to do was make Morgan upset but he didn't want him to see something like that, not if what the doctor described was even a fraction of what Peter was imagining. If it wasn't his dad, he wasn't sure he would want to go in either. Then he wondered how much Morgan would actually remember if he just took him in. He chastised himself as soon as that thought crossed his mind, these people were the best and he knew he should listen to them. Peter tried again, "Morgan, I promise I'll be right back. Please just stay here? For me?"

But the little boy was every inch as stubborn as his parents, "No, you said daddy, I wanna see daddy."

Peter sighed and decided to try explaining the situation, "Morgan, dad's hurt really bad right now so the doctor said you should stay out here for a bit."

In response, Morgan wrapped his hands tighter into Peter's shirt and stared at him, daring Peter to move him. The all of forty pound child was daring Spider-Man to make him do something he didn't want to do.

And Peter couldn't.

Instead, he looked over at Happy, agony written across his face, as he quietly asked, "What do I do?"

"Let me take him, Pete." Happy stepped up and wrapped his hands around Morgan's waist before he slowly started to tug him away. Morgan twisted his hands tighter into Peter's shirt and screamed bloody-murder, the screams turning into gut-wrenching sobs as soon as Happy started to pull him. Happy was trying to be gentle but Morgan had a death grip on Peter's shirt and was trying to pull himself closer to his brother, so the progress was slow.

Hearing the sobs and screams of his little brother broke Peter's heart and it kept him from gently prying Morgan's fingers off his shirt. Instead, he just let his arms fall from around the little boy's back. But that new development pushed Morgan's cries into wailing tears as he fought harder, kicking his feet in a desperate attempt to stay where he was. And as the first fingers finally lost their grip, Peter couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't. He snaked his arms around Morgan's back and shook his head, quickly explaining, "No, it's…it's okay Happy, I'll take him in to see dad. It'll be okay, he'll be good and he probably won't remember much anyway." Peter wasn't sure if it was the right decision but it was the only one he could stomach.

"Peter…" Both Happy and Sposek cautioned in hushed concern.

But Peter's own tears were tracking silently down his pain-scrunched face as he explained, "I can't listen to him cry, Happy…I can't…please, just…just give him back to me."

Happy frowned but yielded, pressing the little boy back into Peter's arms where he promptly curled into Peter's neck and wrapped his fists more firmly into the fabric of his brother's shirt. Morgan's tears rapidly quieted as he got to be where he wanted to be. Once the little boy was settled, Peter sniffled a few times before he squared his shoulders, all semblance of his tears hidden. He took a step toward the doctors and looked between the two, his voice deadly serious, "I won't stay long but I can't put him down so either he goes with me or you get out of my way."

They relented.

Fry whispered "A3" as he stepped passed.

* * *

Peter slipped into the room quietly, whispering to Morgan as he did so and reminding him that he absolutely needed to be quiet. Unfortunately, his own advice didn't work when he saw the results of the crash. He audibly gasped before letting out a wavering breath in a low whine. Sposek had been right.

Tony looked like the entire left side of his body had been dipped in a terrible mixture of red, purple, and black paint. His face was scratched and torn, his cheekbone broken, his eye completely swollen shut, and his nose definitely reset. But even that was only some of the damage, a bite block and a ventilator obscured a good portion of the bottom of his face. As Peter tracked the mutilation, he realized that a portion of Tony's hair had been shaved, revealing staples that were holding his skull together. Bile rose in the back of his throat as he forced himself to keep going. His dad's neck showed the distinctly deep, purply bruise of a seatbelt that had pulled too tight. His arm, the one that already bore the scars of his use of the gauntlet, looked like it had been flayed. There were deep cuts that were made by shattered glass but it was also possible to see where bone had broken the skin. And even with the cleaning the nurses had done, it still looked like the appendage was bleeding profusely. But what was almost worse was that it was set with pins and suspended. Peter realized his arm had to have been crushed. A part of him thought that getting to the heavy blanket would be enough to hide the damage but even under that it was possible to see the bulky cast that covered his leg under it. The rest of the injuries were thankfully hidden. As Peter's mind attempted to register exactly what this all meant, he had the overwhelmingly simple thought that his dad was going to be pissed when he realized they had shaved his head. But he couldn't process more than that, even as all the excess information slammed into him. Instead Peter hiccupped a sob before he collapsed in the chair next to the bed and stared. He felt all the color drain out of his face. The doctor had been right.

Morgan must have looked at some point because he was freely sobbing into Peter's shoulder. He had stretched the fabric of Peter's shirt up around his face, probably as a way to hide from what he had seen.

In response, Peter wound his arms tighter and dropped his forehead onto his brother's shoulder. As Morgan cried, the soft shakes made Peter's head bob but also made it obvious that he couldn't cry anymore. He knew in his gut, his own fear and emotions needed to be second or third priority. Now that he had seen the results of the accident, Peter knew that his ability to cry in the presence of others was gone. He was going to have to be strong because this was hard to look at and he knew there was no keeping any of his family out of the room.

* * *

Peter had promised to leave after a few minutes but as soon as he saw Tony, he knew that wasn't going to happen. Peter couldn't imagine leaving him on his own, even if his dad didn't know they were there. Happy had slipped in at some point and Peter's stomach turned when he heard the man's unconscious response but he didn't say anything, just gave Happy an understanding frown before he turned back toward the bed.

Morgan was more reserved than normal. Peter assumed he didn't really understand what was going on but it was easy to tell that something was wrong and without even a hint of instruction, the little boy was sitting mostly still in Peter's lap. He had a death grip on Peter's shirt and would shuffle in place from time to time but never released his fingers. Every once and a while, Morgan would sniffle and rub at his nose, which prompted Peter to gather him up a little higher on his chest so Morgan could snuggle into his neck. He would cuddle for a bit, sometimes crying, sometimes sucking his thumb, and Peter would patiently hold him until he shifted again.

Peter couldn't have guessed how long it had been but eventually Morgan burrowed into his neck and fell asleep on his shoulder. Once he felt the soft puffs of air on his cheek, Peter smiled almost contentedly and started rubbing soothing circles on his back, at least someone was getting some sleep. He slouched down and stretched out the best he could in the chair, hoping to make Morgan a little more comfortable. Peter couldn't sleep though, instead, he stayed rooted where his was, keeping Morgan stable and staring at the unconscious man in front of him.

He was so focused that he barely noticed when Happy put a turkey sandwich on his knee, patting him on the shoulder, and taking back up his seat at the back of the room. It took him some time but eventually Peter ate the sandwich because it got annoying balancing it there, not because he felt hungry. He knew he should be but his stomach wasn't devouring itself like it normally would have been, almost like it was too sick to digest anything.

He continued to sit in silence as Morgan and his dad slept.

* * *

At some point, Peter heard a soft snore from the back corner of the room and, carefully so he didn't jostle Morgan, he turned enough to see that Happy had fallen asleep too. Peter smirked as the man twitched a little but the amusement didn't last long. The position quickly started to hurt Peter's back and he had to slump back into his chair. He rolled his numb shoulder and laid his hand on Morgan's back again.

As the little boy shifted slightly in his sleep, curling just a little closer, Peter was struck by the strange realization that his mind was quiet.

He really should have been thinking about something, but as he forced himself to ruminate a little longer on why he wasn't, no substantial reason came to mind. That left him to stare at his dad for a while longer until Michelle's voice floated through his mind, reminding him numbness was a defense mechanism.

And that was fine with him. He could be defensive until his dad woke up. His gut told him there was a storm knocking just on the edges but in he ignored it, closed his eyes, and rested his head on the back of the chair. His world couldn't afford for him to be distracted right now.

He was still in that frame of mind when the soft click of the door drew his unfocused attention. Morgan was still asleep so he couldn't move, instead he kept his eyes closed and listened. The newest occupant gasped and whispered, "oh my" before the soft steps moved to a stop behind Peter's chair. Then May's quiet voice broke the droning, mechanical hums of the room when she laid her hand on his free shoulder, leaned down next to him, and quietly asked, "Peter? Are you okay, honey?"

Peter slowly opened his eyes and glanced up at her the best he could before he gave her a melancholy nod. He didn't know what to say, this wasn't okay. He wasn't okay but he needed to be so he was. Unfortunately, his discomfort ratcheted up when he heard another familiar set of footfalls.

Pepper had followed May in but she didn't hesitate at the door. She stepped up to the bed, laying her hand gently on Tony's face and leaning down to press a kiss to his hairline. As he watched, Peter couldn't help but wish Morgan was awake, if only to help wipe the despondent expression still directed at Tony when she pulled back. It was telling even with all her tact and poise, she couldn't hide the fear and sorrow that radiated off her as she took in the state of her husband. When she finally looked over at him, Peter watched the tears well up in her eyes and he hated it. Hated knowing she was that sad.

As he watched her, a small part of him realized his numbness was starting to fade.

Thankfully May was already there and she wrapped Pepper in the tight hug the Peter and Morgan couldn't. The two women clung to each other for a short time until both took up the seats to either side of Peter. Pepper laid her hand on Peter's arm in a gesture of greeting, giving him a badly concealed, miserable smile and flicking her eyes over to Morgan's sleeping form, before she whispered, "Thank you for taking care of him. Happy told me what you did."

Peter nodded blankly before he remembered himself and responded, "Of course, Pepper. It's not a big deal at all, I just came when he called."

Pepper regarded him closely for a few more moments, her sharp eyes flickering over his tired face before she asked, "How are you?"

Peter was a bit taken back by the question, even though he knew he shouldn't be. He swallowed hard, squashing down any emotion that might betray him and rise to the surface, before he replied, "I'm okay. It's just a lot and I don't know that I've totally wrapped my head around it." He winced internally when he realized that might have been a little too honest and he quickly added, "But I know he's going to be okay."

Pepper narrowed her eyes slightly but didn't push, the suspicion just a fleeting glance before she gave him a small smile, "He will be." After another moment of scrutiny, she turned her attention back to Tony, grabbing ahold of his hand and bringing it to her lips before she sat back with it clutched in hers.

May watched the exchange with concern because she recognized the slight monotony of Peter's voice, she had heard it before but the last time she hadn't been in a position to deal with it. In her gut, she knew this had hit her nephew much harder than he was obviously willing to admit, she would need to make sure she talked to him about that. But now wasn't the time so in an effort to make it a little easier, she laid her arm across the back of Peter's chair. Giving him someone to lean on while he held Morgan.

Peter took the opportunity, shifting enough to rest his head against May's shoulder, turning into the comfort she offered. Eventually, it was enough security to give him a chance to get at least some sleep.

* * *

**Tony's still not out of the woods yet but at least the cavalry's starting to filter in :)**

**Feel free to let me know what you thought in the comments!**

**I hope you have a wonderful day/night and stay creative!**

**-Lily**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey everyone!**

**I'm not totally sure why but this story has been a pretty fast write so I figured I would share the next chapter :) I think some of it might have been because I finally saw Far From Home and I'm sad...but that's okay because sad is a good frame of mind to be in when writing sad things.**

**I want to make sure I say thank you to those of you who favorited and followed and a special thank you to:**

**\- the wonderful JohnGilbertVampirehunter, Morgan has been interesting to write because I've never really written for a young child before so I've tried taking into account the mannerisms and way the imagination works for some of my friend's children so I'm really glad that it seems to be coming across that way! And I had to have May in there, I couldn't leave Peter hanging that badly! I hope you enjoy this chapter as well!**

**\- the amazing carajiggirl, I'm glad you're intrigued and I'm glad that you like the relationship aspect! That's definitely what I wanted to focus on for this one!**

**\- the stupendous Proud Hollander, I'm sorry that was hard to read :( but at the same time, I'm kind of glad it was because that's what I was going for :/ so thank you for saying that. Holy crap, that's so much different than what we do in the states! I like the idea of having that time off from Christmas (sometimes September!) to February though, that's kind of awesome. Do you specialize in subjects when you get to high school? Or do you have general education throughout? Thanks for answering my questions!**

**\- the awesome Oriande Moonshadow, I'm glad you're enjoying the story so much! I'm really glad that you think of it like that and here you go!**

**Thank you all again so much and without further ado...**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Peter was jolted awake when he felt Morgan shifting against his chest and before he even opened his eyes, he tightened his grip, afraid the little boy was slipping.

Then he felt a hand run through his hair and May's voice broke through the haziness, "It's okay, honey. Pepper's just going to take Morgan for a bath." Peter blinked his eyes open and saw Pepper leaning over him, a stricken look on her face. Once he realized what was going on, Peter released his grip and whispered, "Sorry Pepper."

Pepper gathered Morgan into her arms and put her hand on Peter's shoulder, "It's okay, sweetie, I'm sorry I scared you, I thought I could pull him away without waking you up." As she said it, she scrunched her nose, as if realizing how ridiculous it was to think she could do that.

Then May pulled his attention back, quietly suggesting, "Peter, I think you should probably think about that too."

Peter looked down at himself then, his shirt was stretched and wrinkled. He ran his, now free, hand through his hair and realized just how greasy it was. His tongue wandered over his teeth and he could feel the grime there, the coating of halitosis making him feel uncomfortable. And for the first time, he wondered how long he had been sitting there. He did need to clean up but he was afraid to leave.

As if May could read his mind, she patted his shoulder, soothingly assuring, "I'll stay with Tony until you get back." She glanced over at Happy, gesturing back to Tony's security and added, "Happy'll stay with me." She shot him a soft smile before she turned back to Peter and pressed, "You should get cleaned up, honey. It'll make you feel better, I promise."

Peter relented and stiffly stood. His normally nimble limbs popped as he unfolded from the chair for the first time in god knew how long, forcing him to stretch a bit before he leaned down to hug May, whispering, "Thank you."

"You're welcome." And then she said with a little more volume and a smirk, "Go take a shower Peter, you smell."

Peter managed a half-smile at her attempt and gave one last look at his dad before he set his feet to drag him to his room. He could have taken the elevators but as he stood he realized he had a fair amount of paradoxical pent up physical energy that had been building alongside his mental exhaustion so he decided to take the stairs, hoping that it would ease his anxiety a bit.

As he walked, he felt like it was working and without even a thought he was in front of his room. Peter easily slid into the room and pressed the door closed behind him.

As the latch snapped shut, it was like a switch flipped and Peter felt everything stop.

Without him realizing it, his world had been spinning wildly, careening out of control from the moment he had heard Morgan's tearful voice and now in the quiet of his room, he suddenly knew it. And while the lag between blissful ignorance and complete knowledge was initially a blessing, that only lasted for a brief moment before he felt more like he suddenly became an immovable object in a tornado. Everything slammed into him, forcing him to fall back into his door for support. His world started to crack unexpectedly and the only thing he could process was that he was thankful no one was around to see it.

Peter crammed the heels of his hands into his eyes and dug his fingers into his hair trying to quiet his now raging mind. Trying to crush the images out of his head and claw his way out of the windstorm that was battering his defenses.

It took time but eventually the buffeting winds eased and he was left with a new kind of equilibrium. One that let him take in a stuttered breath. Once he felt like he could breathe again, Peter dropped his hands from his eyes and let his head fall back against the door. Taking a few deep breaths, Peter somehow found the fortitude to open his eyes.

As he calmed his racing heart, Peter heard a buzzing noise that he realized he had been hearing to since he had closed the door but it was just now becoming annoying. Still, it didn't matter, he was too uneasy to figure out what it was and make it stop.

It took some more time before he finally found some semblance of footing.

Once he did that, Peter was able to react to the buzzing noise on his bed. As he staggered over to it, he found his discarded phone laying on the soft comforter and for a moment he wondered how it had ended up there. But his numb mind wasn't too keen on coming up with a more complex reason than Happy and instead, he flopped onto his bed, hoping for a chance of a distraction. He wasn't sure how wide news about the accident had spread but he knew he had to have missed lunch with Michelle, so he expected to at least hear from her. And he still texted Ned constantly so given the buzzing, he was assuming he had ignored one, or both, of them enough for them to be spamming his phone.

But once he picked up the phone, he triggered the screen and his eyes went wide as he scrolled through the sheer number of banners. It was then that he realized just how long he had been out of the world. There were nearly a hundred missed texts and calls from Michelle, Ned, and May alone. Apparently the accident was all over the news. May's last text said that she was on her way to the Compound but, looking at the time signature, Peter realized that was almost a day ago.

As he scrolled through questions from Ned and Michelle, he felt that familiar bite of guilt on his tongue and for as tired as he was, he knew he needed to respond at least to his friends. Still, he was too exhausted to actually explain what was going on, so instead he sent an abbreviated text to their group chat, letting them know where he was and that everything just was and that he didn't really know anything yet.

He hadn't expected to hear anything right away but Michelle answered immediately, swearing she would get a car as soon as she could. Peter pressed his fingers into the corners of his eyes as he tried to figure out what to say. He selfishly wanted her here but knew it would just be a lot of waiting. Deciding on what he thought was best, he told her she didn't have to come down and that he would call her when he could but her responding text just told him to bite it. It made him smile despite himself because it seemed liked Michelle would be showing up soon too.

There were at least a hundred other notifications that he knew he should clear but he didn't have the energy for, he figured he would look at them after he had a chance to kind of decompress. Sighing, he dropped his phone back onto the bed and dragged himself to the shower.

Peter stayed in the shower until the hot water caused his skin to turn red and start to burn and only then did he scrub himself clean. May had been right, it felt good.

When he emerged from the long, hot shower, Peter resolved to clear his phone.

To make some small, controlled choice.

Freshly dressed in sweatpants and one of his dad's favorite sweatshirts, he plopped back on his bed and scooped up his phone, scrolling through the notifications he had ignored before. There were a few new ones from Ned and there were some from other classmates. Betty had texted him a few times, saying she was sorry and asking if there was anything she could do. Peter responded, telling her no and that he would keep her updated. And then he started to see the notifications from his news and entertainment apps. Sighing at the annoying reality of his dad's public status, Peter started swiping, trying to get rid of them as quickly as he could. He was on autopilot with it when he accidentally clicked on one of the articles and it pulled up a report about the crash.

Immediately, reality slammed back into him when in the middle of his phone in all its vivid color, was a picture of his dad's totaled car. And Peter's morbid curiosity took over as he studied the image. The car that had hit Tony had been pulled away and even on the small screen, it was possible to make out the deep indentation of exactly where the car had struck. Peter almost lost the little that was in his stomach when he realized the driver's side door was still intact, this had to have been right after the accident. That meant that someone had stopped what they were doing to take a picture while his dad was dying in the front seat. Peter's heart squeezed and he felt his breath catch in his chest when he realized that.

The storm from earlier swirled a little louder.

The only saving grace about the image was that it was too grainy for him to see Tony. But he could see EMS frozen in frantic poses and the tagline read, "Tony Stark Severely Injured in Crash: Status Unknown". Before he realized what he was doing, Peter flicked through the article, catching snippets like critical condition, mangled, and jaws of life. With each new thing he read, he gripped the phone tighter. Eventually he got to a comment from one of the emergency responders who mentioned that Tony was lucky to be alive and Peter couldn't make it to the end of the statement. Instead, in displaced frustration and anger, he hurled his phone at the wall, oddly satisfied as it shattered on contact with the plaster, even if it did leave a phone-sized hole. For a brief moment, that made him feel better but then he realized he had just lost any contact he had with anyone outside of the Compound.

And he wasn't sure he cared.

Scoffing at the scattered plastic and metal components on the floor, Peter called up to FRIDAY, "Can you please text MJ and Ned and let them know that my phone is broken?"

"Of course, Peter. Would you like me to let you know if they respond?"

As much as he wanted to say yes, he knew that Ned would still try to blow up his broken phone out of concern and he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to deal with that so instead, Peter answered, "No. But don't tell them that. Can you please let them know I just need some time and if I don't answer right away, I will when I can?"

There was a pause before FRIDAY responded, "Both have answered in the affirmative to your message. And are telling you to let them know if you need anything."

"Thanks FRIDAY."

Finally feeling a little more like himself, Peter squared his shoulders and pointed himself in the direction of Tony's room, decision made to sit with him as long as he had to until his dad woke up.

* * *

May watched him suspiciously from the moment he walked into the room, confused as to why it had taken him longer to make it back into Tony's room than it had Morgan and Pepper. She watched his smile falter as he looked from Pepper to Tony and she realized that the, rightfully distracted, woman hadn't caught it. May wasn't angry at Pepper for that but she was immediately aware of what Peter was doing. With a forced nonchalance, he took up the middle chair he had been in before, taking Morgan's hand when the little boy reached for him and giving him a soft smile that never made it to his eyes.

May knew she had been right before, he was trying to take on too much.

* * *

May waited until Pepper left to get some lunch, she promised that she would join her in a few minutes and then she turned to Peter. The fear in her voice was clear as she ordered, "Peter, you need to stop this right now."

The rushed demand and the vehemence behind it blindsided him and Peter flicked his eyes up in surprise, "What do you mean?"

But May was already on a roll, snapping, "Don't do that Peter Parker, don't you dare do that. I know what you're doing. You're pretending everything is fine, you're pretending that this doesn't affect you as much because you have some kind of positivity shield up or some bullshit like that. You did it after your uncle was killed only I was too upset to see it then and I will not let you do it now."

"May…" Peter drew out her name but was afraid to lie to her because she knew she was right.

She put her hand on his shoulder and warned, "Don't you May me. You need to talk about this because its not healthy for you to keep it bottled inside. Especially not if you're trying to take the emotional weight for two or three other people on top of your own fears. Tony wouldn't want you to do that and you know it."

Peter's defenses took a heavy blow at her accusations and he begged, "Please don't do that, May. Please don't say stuff like that. I need to do this for them. I have to do this for _him_. He trusts me to protect them."

May took a deep, calming breath, realizing that she was not helping the situation. Her voice was steadier and more tender when she explained, "I'm not saying you can't be strong for them but you have got to talk to someone else about it."

"I can't May, not yet. I'm not even sure what it is." Peter lied, well aware of what it was and still not able to burden his aunt with it. He had seen the way she was watching him and Pepper, like she was afraid one of them was going to break. He couldn't let her see him that way. So he acted with everything he had. Tears sprang to his eyes and he let them, knowing she would sympathize before he tried to project some strength of will as he explained, "I'm okay, May, I promise. I know he's going to be okay because he has to be…because Morgan needs him to be…because…I...need him to be." As he said it, Peter's lungs constricted and his heart pounded so hard he was sure May would see it through his sweatshirt. The world had tried to crush him enough times for him to know that was a lie.

But May seemed to buy it.

"Oh, baby…" She said as she leaned forward and tugged him toward her, wrapping him in a tight hug and running her hand up and down his spine, "of course he's going to be okay."

Peter wanted to cry, to rage, to shout, to do something but then May would have known something was wrong and he couldn't allow that to happen. Instead, he hugged her back and let the embrace act like a temporary balm on his tortured soul.

May held him for a long time before she pulled back and looked him in the eyes, searching them for some truth he hadn't told her. When she seemed to find nothing deceitful, she gave him a sad smile and asked, "Do you want some time to yourself?"

Peter looked up at her in surprise, "What do you mean?"

"You've been in here with Morgan or Happy or Pepper or me since this happened, do you need some time to be in here on your own?"

Without having realized that was unquestionably something he needed, Peter nodded energetically.

May narrowed her eyes and regarded him for a minute more before she pulled him forward and kissed his cheek, "I'll be upstairs helping Pepper if you need me. Just…please promise you'll call if you need anything?"

Peter felt the emotion of that gift hit him and his throat closed up a bit as he whispered, "I will, I promise." He hugged her again, "Thank you, May."

She held him and when he didn't break down, she felt better, knowing he was on a relatively sure footing. Pulling back, she laid her hand on the side of his face and looked him in the eyes before replying, "I love you, Peter."

Peter gave her a real smiled before he responded with conviction, "I love you too, May."

She pulled away and stood, pausing at the door to give him a soft smile. Once the door clicked closed, it was just Peter and Tony.

* * *

Peter stared at the door for a few moments before he turned back to his dad. He leaned forward onto his elbows, curling Tony's fingers gently in his own. He wasn't sure what he wanted to say and he realized that he hadn't actually expected to have any time to himself so now that he had it, he didn't know what to do with it. Still, he tried. He started quietly, haltingly, "Hey dad…it's me…it's Peter."

He paused but he wasn't quite sure why, the man on the bed didn't react, wasn't going to react. His eyes stayed resolutely closed, the ventilator doing all the work for him while the heart rate monitor continued to pulse in the background.

Peter dropped their hands onto the bed and rested his chin on his forearm as he tried to think about what he knew Tony was worried about. He wanted to make sure that Tony knew everything was okay, that he could just focus on healing. It only took him a few moments to guess what would be on Tony's mind. Peter smiled sadly before he took a deep breath and softly promised, "Morgan and Pepper are okay, I promise. I don't want you to worry about that, okay dad? I'll take care of them for you, you just have to make sure you get better."

Promise made, Peter scrunched his nose as he tried to think of something else to talk about, partially to distract himself and partially because in his gut he knew Tony could hear him and maybe if he talked enough, he would wake up long enough to tell him to stop. Peter would be okay with that. He leaned into what he knew well enough to talk about with little thought, his senior year project. He had been running stuff passed Tony all year and this just felt natural.

* * *

**Well that's all I have for right now...feel free to let me know what you think.**

**I hope you have a wonderful night/day and stay creative!**

**-Lily**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey everyone!**

**I have another chapter for you! But before I get into it I want to make sure to thank everyone who followed or favorited, its always really cool to see. And to my wonderful reviewers, I want to say thank you to:**

**\- the stupendous Proud Hollander, Thank you, I was going for that and FFH totally is amazing! I think I might actually like it more than Homecoming (which I loved) but I'm going to see it again soon so I'll know for sure after that haha You're doing classical studies! That's so awesome, I studied that in college! And holy crap that set-up is really interesting! I love the fact that you get to have more control over your classes as you go along, that's really great, do all your classes work toward university credit? Or did I misread that? Also congrats on taking the most languages in your school - that's impressive and awesome! I've always liked language and really regret not doing more with it when I was in high school. I love hearing about this! So here's my question for this time, what's your favorite part of living in New Zealand?**

**\- the wonderful poohbear123, Thanks so much and here you go!**

**\- the amazing wisegirlMJ (I love this name so much!), Thanks :) I was actually pretty proud of myself for something up with that one because that just made sense to me. I hope you like this chapter too!**

**\- the fantabulous Guest, I tried to update quickly! I hope this chapter lives up to your expectations!**

**\- the tremendous Guest (I'm sorry if you're the same person as earlier but the writing was so different I took a guess and assumed it was two different guests :/), Okay so I'm going to answer your question first, the way I was thinking about it, he was close enough to the Compound to make some kind of airlift or ambulance ride possible. I would imagine everyone has an idea of who he is and would have notified someone right away so he would have gone to the Compound. To comment on the rest of your review, thank you so much. I'm so glad to know that I'm able to get those emotions to feel real, that's definitely what I was going for here. Thank you for taking the time to comment and I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.**

**\- the awesome Gleekfreak25, Holy crap thank you so much! I hope you enjoy this chapter :)**

**\- the brilliant JohnGilbertVampirehunter, I'm glad you appreciate that, I had to put May in there for sure!**

**\- the purpleflame2, I'm glad you're excited for the story! So with Morgan, he is a character I wrote in pretty early when I started writing Avengers fanfics because I thought it was really cute that Tony was super excited at the prospect of having a kid during Infinity War. His presence just built from there since most of the stories are related. I just figured that since Peter called Tony 'dad', any kid of Tony's would be his brother. So that's why he's there. I hope you enjoy Far From Home!**

**So a warning with this chapter - I'm not a doctor nor do I have any medical training so the medical stuff is courtesy of Google. It's not normally something I like doing but I decided I needed to look up at least some of it for this chapter. Please don't flame me if it's not right!**

**Well that's all I have for right now so without further ado...**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

It was sometime around five in the evening when Peter had finally exhausted himself enough to dose. His head was buried in his arms when there was a knock on the door. He brushed it off, assuming it was one of the doctors or nurses. For some reason, they always knocked, like someone was going to keep them out. He thought about saying something but he was tired and so he didn't, instead, he buried his head farther into the mattress, they would tell him to move if he needed to. Actively ignoring it, he went back to letting the hiss of the ventilator and the soft beeping of the monitor lull him into a false sense of security.

He was a little annoyed when the click of the opening door caught his attention too he refused to open his eyes. Whoever it was paused and it took a moment before the soft footsteps moved through the room. He still he ignored it. Even when the steps ended behind his chair, he disregarded it. Then whoever it was laid a comforting hand on his shoulder and whispered, "Peter?"

Peter scrunched his eyes shut tight as a tear leaked through his defenses. He knew that voice and for a moment, he didn't want to look. He realized he had known who it was as soon as she came into the room but he had been afraid to acknowledge it. He knew as soon as he did, there was a good chance she would see his weakness and he wasn't sure if he was ready for that. He dug his head a little farther into his hands before he felt her kneel next to him. Her hand moving from his shoulder and coming to rest on his knee before she whispered again, "Peter?"

Only then did he look at her. He peaked his head out from under his arm and looked down at the beautiful face, easily picking up the sorrow and empathy written there. He sighed and pulled his head out of his arms. He hadn't been crying but his thick voice betrayed his pain as he whispered, "MJ…"

She didn't say anything, just nodded but Peter could see the tears in her eyes. That seemed to be the natural reaction whenever anyone saw Tony. She sat down in the chair next to him and moved her hand to his back.

Peter forced himself to sit up and look at her, "You didn't have to come…" The partially completed sentence was ash in his mouth, he was so incredibly thankful she was there but at the same time, he felt guilty because he was the reason she was not at school.

But Michelle just smiled at him, she knew what he was doing, and she answered him without a hint of sarcasm, "Yah I did." She started running her hand in soothing circles over his back as she glanced over at Tony.

Peter watched her eyes flick over to his dad and he realized that if someone looked at him from this angle, his injuries didn't look quite so bad. If it wasn't for the constantly compressing ventilator and the cuts still littered across his face, it was possible to imagine that he was just sleeping. It was a good thought but Peter knew it was a bitter lie.

Michelle finally looked back at him after her sharp eyes had taken in the broken man before her and she quietly asked, "Do you want to talk about what happened?"

Peter felt tears spring to his eyes again and he nodded as he collected himself before he asked, "What is the news saying?"

Michelle frowned at his dodge and deftly redirected the conversation, "That's not what I asked, Peter. I asked if you wanted to talk about it."

Peter had known that wasn't going to work and he felt another tear slide down his cheek before he shrugged and explained, "I don't know much. Happy said someone t-boned his car and it took them time to cut him out of the wreck. And then they brought him here, I guess that's one of the advantages of having a public alter ego." Peter scoffed without a hint of laughter, before he continued, "His chest was basically crushed, one lung collapsed, his arm was shattered, his leg was broken in three places. He's got whiplash, he cracked his skull on the driver's side window. They're worried about memory loss and spinal compressions…or separations…I don't remember which…and nerve damage and god knows what else, I couldn't follow everything Fry was saying." He looked up at her as he finished listing the things he knew and saw the tears in her eyes. For some reason, he took that as disappointment, misreading her expression as he hurried to explain, "I swear I tried to remember but I couldn't process it all." The immense feeling of failure slammed into him, he should know these things, if their roles had been reversed, Tony would have known everything and been able to repeat it back to anyone who asked because it was _important_.

But Michelle was quick to squash the self-deprecation, "It's okay that you don't remember everything, that's the doctor's job. Your job is to be here for your dad, nothing else." She waited to see if he was going to rebuff that statement and when he didn't, she carefully asked, "Do they know when he'll wake up?"

Peter shook his head ruefully as tears built in his eyes again, "This isn't them. It's his body trying to heal. He'll be out for as long as he needs to be." Finally saying that out loud, somehow made it worse.

Michelle grabbed his hand and squeezed, she was trying to think of something else to say, trying to come up with something that would numb some of his pain but she was blanking. She dug deeper only to stop in mid-thought as Peter's expression shifted. He sat up straighter and quickly brushed his hand across his eyes, as if making sure that any stray tears were gone, and he coughed to clear his throat before carefully fixing his expression into one of controlled sadness. She was confused by the reaction but squeezed his hand again, proving that she was still there. Her heart broke when he shot her a glance and she could see the fragility underneath the faux exterior for just a moment more. By the time May and Pepper opened the door, Morgan balanced on Pepper's hip, Michelle understood what he was doing. He was trying to be the rock for his family and it made her sick.

On the other hand, it let her know exactly what she needed to do to help him.

* * *

The next few days passed in a slow blur.

Peter rarely left Tony's room.

Pepper and Morgan only left to give Morgan a short break and to get something to eat.

May bounced between the two, trying to help Pepper with Morgan and making sure that Peter was taking care of himself. She tried to convince Peter to talk to her a few more times but each time, he held her at bay, unable to take her away from Pepper.

Happy dealt with the police and the media although his methods were completely different for each. He cooperated with the police, keeping up on the investigation and the trial and communicating the Stark Industries's position on as much as he could, only getting Pepper when she was absolutely needed. For the media, he basically ensured the company was on black out. He refused to allow anyone near the Compound and had all calls routed to his phone before he promptly hung up on everyone. He didn't want them to even have a scent of a story until they knew Tony was going to wake up.

Michelle stayed with Peter as often as she could. Apparently, she had brought as much as she could from school, packing up everything she had left for the semester. Still, when she realized she needed a few books for reference, Pepper gave her access to the internal research capabilities of the company and she was able to find them pretty quickly. Pepper also took care of the rental car payment without Michelle knowing about it.

As for the rest of the Avengers, it didn't take long for the word to get out.

The morning after Michelle got there, Dr. Strange appeared. Peter watched the gleaming golden portal open on the other end of the room before the caped Master of the Mystic Arts stepped through. Michelle and May both jumped and grabbed Peter's hands. Peter couldn't help but smirk at them, it had been surprising the first time he had seen it too. Stephen inclined his head to the Stark family, before he addressed them, "Peter, Pepper, I apologize for not coming sooner. I was not available until moments ago and I came as soon as I heard the situation. Is there any way I could be of assistance?"

As he asked, his eyes flicked across the room and landed on the medical chart at the end of the bed. Without waiting for an answer, he grabbed the file and started to scan through it. He hummed a few times before he looked up at Tony, his eyes narrowing before he stepped out of the room without another word.

Peter wasn't sure why but the entire interaction caused his hair to stand up on the back of his neck. Strange had noticed something he didn't like. That was a problem. Unfortunately, Peter wasn't able to dwell on it for long before Steve, Bucky, and Natasha appeared in the doorway. They were dirty and bloodied but the look on their faces had nothing to do with the outcome of their mission.

As they stepped into the room, they took up the seats on Tony's left, the only ones still open. None of them asked any questions and waited until they were addressed.

Peter knew where they had been. There was a weapons dealer out of Eastern Europe who had found some old Hydra weapons and had been busy attempting to modify and sell them. The Avengers had been called in. They had asked for Peter's help with this one when Clint couldn't go because Laura was about to give birth to their fourth but Peter had to say no as well because of his project. Looks like they had taken care of it anyway. Peter leaned forward and tentatively asked, "How'd it go?"

Steve answered simply, "We cleaned up the problem."

Peter flicked his eyes over the group, taking in the disheveled look of their clothes, before he quipped, "I'm guessing it didn't go as smoothly as you wanted."

Natasha smirked at his jab and she recognized it for what it was, an attempt at normal. Obliging his unconscious request, she met his gaze and replied, "You should see the other guys." Then her smirk fell a little as she asked the second most important question, "Do we know what happened to the guy who did this?" She of course wanted to ask how Tony was doing but also knew something she could ask the doctors wasn't worth the emotional toll of asking his family to repeat it, they could all see that he wasn't okay. This was a safer question.

Peter glanced over at Natasha and quietly replied, "He's in jail for now." Peter saw the flash of anger on the faces of the three Avengers in front of him and for a split second, he felt bad for the man. But then he agree with their assessment and moved passed the sympathy.

None of them talked about it again, preferring to slip into a conversation that had a little less weight to it. Unfortunately, even then it was stuttered and faltered because of concern and wandering attentions. Thankfully, during one of the lulls, Dr. Strange appeared again.

When he stepped into the doorway, he caught Peter's attention first and Peter quick to ask, "What's wrong? Why'd you leave like that earlier?" The tone wasn't as deferential as normal, Peter wanted answers and he wanted Strange to know it.

But the enigmatic mystic ignored the tone of his voice even as he was quick to assuage Peter's fears as he confidently explained, "Nothing, Peter, I just wanted to confer with the doctor about some of the information on the chart." The man stepped up and patted Peter on the shoulder, "It's nothing to worry about."

Unfortunately Strange's reassurances did little to actually reassure Peter.

The rest of the day passed sluggishly, dragging slowing into the ones after it. And still, Tony stayed unconscious.

* * *

The feeling that Peter had gotten from Strange continued as the days dragged on. No matter what anyone said, Peter couldn't get over the feeling that something was very wrong with his dad. It wasn't any type of knowledge, just a sickness that had settled in his gut. There was just something about Tony's persistent unconsciousness that left Peter feeling concerned and he couldn't stop the instinctual fear that was sitting like an iron weight on his heart.

He wasn't sure what it was though and he didn't want to alarm anyone since it was obviously just his own anxiety. The doctors were monitoring him constantly and there was no way that Peter's gut was able to pick up on anything they didn't. For some reason, Peter was sure that Michelle had noticed his fear because she was around as often as she could be and she would put her book down whenever he said anything, giving him her full attention immediately. It was disconcerting because normally she would ask him to wait until she had at least finished her page.

Still, he couldn't put words to his concern so he didn't. He just watched and waited, desperate for Tony to wake up.

* * *

A few days after Michelle arrived, Peter found himself in Tony's room with just Pepper and Morgan. It was a rare occurrence but May had gone home to grab some more clothes and Michelle had fallen asleep so Peter had carried her to her room an hour or so ago. Happy had been called away to deal with some legal matter so the three were just sitting quietly. Until, Happy slipped back in and quietly called, "Pepper? The officers need to talk to you for a bit."

Pepper glanced over at Peter and asked, "Can you take Morgan?"

Peter nodded and held out his arms, pulling Morgan onto his lap before he asked, "Do you want me to come with you, Pepper?" He could see the discomfort in her eyes and he desperately wanted to do something to make that better.

Pepper's eyes flicked between Peter and Tony for a moment before she steeled her resolve and answered, "No, I need you to stay here with them." Her voice quieted and she betrayed her own anxieties when she whispered, "I don't want Tony to be alone."

Peter nodded, understanding that sentiment perfectly. He settled back into his chair before he answered, "If you need anything…"

Pepper smiled and laid her hand on Peter's shoulder before responding, "I'll ask FRIDAY to get you." She let her hand linger for a moment as she glanced at the door, as if she was attempting to pull a little more strength from Peter or give him some of her's. It was impossible to tell. Still, after a few moments, she took a deep breath, rolled her shoulders and dropped her hand, determined to deal with the police.

The conversation ended up taking longer than Pepper wanted and when she made it back later that night, Morgan had already fallen asleep and Peter was dozing next to the bed, his hand resolutely clutching Tony's. There was no sense in waking them up so Pepper sat down next to them and curled into her chair, ready to try to get another useless night of interrupted sleep.

* * *

Somewhere in the haze of his sleep-deprived mind, Peter felt the hand clasped in his twitch. In his sleep, he assumed it was a trick of his mind, the doctors had told him Tony was no closer to waking up. But a few heartbeats after he felt it, he jerked awake, hair standing on end as his senses screamed at him. Reacting on instinct, Peter wrapped both arms protectively around Morgan as he carefully surveyed the room for anything out of the ordinary, anything that was wrong because something was definitely wrong.

But he didn't see anything or anyone. Morgan was asleep against his chest and Pepper was in the chair next to him but there wasn't anything wrong. He swept the room again as his senses ratcheted up, forcing him to squint as he tried to handle the pain repeatedly slamming into his skull.

Then all hell broke loose.

The machines in the room started screaming and the twitching was replaced by tortured shudders as Tony seized, his muscles tightening in a way that would have been painful if he had been conscious. In a horrifying epiphany, Peter realized exactly why his senses were shrieking at him and he jumped up, shouting, "Help!" as he tore into the hallway. He didn't need to go far, Fry and Strange were already running toward him with a few nurses in tow. Peter turned to follow them only to be stopped at the door by one of the nurses, "Peter, please stay out here."

Peter started to protest but the woman cut him off, "Keep Morgan out here, neither one of you need to see any of this."

Peter's eye's widened as he realized he was still carrying the, now awake, five-year old clutched to his chest. Peter looked down in time to see Morgan bury his face into his shirt before his back started to quake with sobs. Knowing what she said was probably best, Peter nodded. Job done, the nurse immediately disappeared into the room, the door snapping shut.

Peter froze awkwardly for a moment before he fell back against the wall and slid down onto his butt, bending his legs up as he wrapped his arms around Morgan and started whispering, "Shh…shh…It's okay, buddy, it's okay. Dad's gonna be fine, promise. And as soon as the doctors are done, we'll go back in and sit with him again." Morgan didn't say anything, just continued to sob, and Peter dropped his head back against the wall and stared hard at the ceiling, desperate to keep from crying. He focused on maintaining the methodical circles he was rubbing on Morgan's back but he couldn't help but listen to everything that was happening in the room. Peter's heart clenched as the frantic calls of the medical professionals filtered through the drywall that was too thin to keep his senses from hearing them. And for the first time since this all started, Peter couldn't put a lid on the pessimistic part of his brain that told him his dad was going to die. That after everything that had happened to him, this accident was going to be the thing that killed him. Unfortunately, that realization made him hiccup a sob and Peter froze, swallowing hard and fighting to keep the tears at bay. It mostly worked and when he finally felt like he had control, he dropped his head onto Morgan's shoulder and curled his knees more securely into his back.

In response, Morgan uncurled his fists from Peter's shirt and wrapped his arms around his neck.

The two comforted each other until someone opened the door. Peter jumped at the sound, ready to go back into the room when he was pushed back by another one of the nurses. He was forced flush against the wall as Tony was wheeled out, the doctors not giving him the time of day as they rushed passed.

Peter froze, stunned as he watched the retreating group.

After what felt like a lifetime, he took a hesitant step toward the room, his eyes wide. Looking up, he saw Pepper watching him, her hand on her mouth and tears rolling down her cheeks. She looked so lost, so out of place that Peter almost didn't recognize her. Then he looked down at Morgan and realized that Pepper didn't haven't anything right now, he had stolen the comfort of her child. Unconscious decision made, Peter stepped into the room and put his free arm around Pepper's shoulders. She immediately turned into the gesture and wrapped him in a hug before she started to sob. She sagged against him and Peter had to keep her upright. It was physically easy, he was strong enough to hold her with one hand, but seeing her cry made Morgan cry and that left Peter to be the emotional center. He forced himself to dissociate, to retreat behind his walls. He managed to do it but the longer Pepper sobbed, the more fissures shook the delicate mortar.

Still, Peter forced himself to take one deep, wavering breath before he pulled Pepper tighter against him and shifted Morgan so he was sitting a bit more comfortably on his hip. Peter swallowed back his tears and stood stoically, giving Pepper a chance to calm down.

Eventually, she pulled away from him, whispering, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Pepper rubbed her hand over her eyes to try and dry the tears, trying to find her composure. When she looked back up at him, she laid her hand on his cheek, her eyes skittering across his face before she whispered, "Thank you, Peter."

Peter gave her a sad smile before he quietly answered, "Of course, Pepper." He looked at her still red-rimmed eyes and asked, "Do you want to sit down?"

She turned to look at the chairs and for a moment her eyes swept over the empty bed. She felt a pang of pain stab her in the chest but she nodded nonetheless. She knew Peter had to be just as emotionally exhausted as she was so she listened.

Peter took up the chair next to Pepper and whispered to Morgan, "Go hug your mom, buddy."

Almost immediately, Morgan reached out. When Pepper pulled him close enough, he wrapped his arms around her neck and buried his head in her collarbone. Pepper closed her eyes and tucked her cheek against his hair as she took a few more precious moments to calm down completely.

Peter suddenly missed the weight in his arms and he directed the discomfort into finding out what happened. He waited for Pepper to look back at him before quietly asking, "Did they say what's going on?"

Pepper looked up at him, terror clear in her eyes before she whispered, "His brain is bleeding. It was something they thought they had taken care of but they missed something I guess…or it was new…I don't know. I could only pick out some of what they were saying. There was just too much going on and no one stopped to explain. Strange is the one that figured it out. They're taking him back into surgery."

Peter watched as she took a few shaky breaths. That was about what Peter had understood too, he hadn't been able to comprehend much after some point but apparently that didn't matter because he had gotten the gist of it. Peter closed his eyes for a minute and took in a few deep breaths of his own as he clutched his shaking hands in his lap. He couldn't lose it right now, he needed to hold it together.

* * *

**I just had to do it - I'm so sorry!**

**Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments...**

**I hope you have a wonderful day/night and stay creative!**

**\- Lily**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey everyone!**

**I have another chapter for you guys! Thank you to those of your who favorited and followed, its really awesome to get those notification emails and I want to make sure that I say thank you to:**

**\- the lovely carajiggirl, Thanks! I'm trying to make sure I update pretty regularly and I'm glad you're enjoying the story!**

**\- the stupendous Proud Hollander, I'm so sorry and I loved MJ so much in FFH! That's part of the reason why I had to write her in here because it just made me so happy to see her be an awesome character! I gotcha and I could totally see your school system making a lot more sense once you're in it. And that's so, so wonderful about the archaeological stuff! Aww I'm really glad to hear that about the landscape, I've always wanted to see New Zealand since I saw LOTR and now I really want to see it because I feel like it just looks like that. I will have to say that I do not want to try marmite if that is the description lol But pineapple lumps? That sounds like something I could get behind. Thanks and here you go :)**

**\- the amazing Guest, I know I'm so sorry :( but I hope you like this chapter!**

**\- the wonderful JohnGilbertVampirehunter, I know, I'm kinda emotionally destroying my characters :( but it can't last for ever. I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**So without further ado...**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

They sat in tense silence for the next few hours. Morgan was laying across Pepper's lap, holding onto Peter's hand for dear life as Pepper rubbed her hand up and down the little boy's back. Eventually, the door opened and the attention of everyone snapped to the visitor.

Dr. Fry stepped into the doorway and took a deep breath, but before she could say anything, Peter asked, "Is he…is he okay?"

Pepper leaned forward hopefully, waiting with bated breath for the answer.

Fry nodded grimly before she elaborated, "He's stable for now but we're going to keep him in the ICU for at least day because I honestly can't say whether he'll stay that way and we don't want to waste time moving him if anything else happens. Right now, all we can do is wait." She swallowed hard before she explained, "I do have to tell you that you are not to be in the ICU with him. Doctor's orders. I'm making the decision that the three of you need to rest. I realize the importance of what you've been doing but you need to take care of yourselves too. We'll let you know when we move him back in here, but for now, go to your rooms and get some sleep." Very few people had the gall to speak to the Avengers like that and Fry knew it but she stood behind her assessment. They had been getting less rest than her and that needed to be addressed. She watched as Peter's expression shifted into anger and Pepper's moved into something closer to disbelief but she refused to let them say anything, explaining, "I realize that you both want to fight me on this but unless you're willing to fire me, I'm still the head physician. I don't want to see either of you back here until I give the word. Do you understand?"

Both Pepper and Peter squashed their arguments, thoroughly rebuffed. And they realized that she was standing in the doorway, the door held open, a clear sign of what she intended. They looked at each other, a silent agreement passing between them before Pepper lifted Morgan up and set him on his feet. Pepper and Peter joined. Morgan quickly snatched up both their hands. As they stepped into the hallway, Fry pulled the door shut behind them and put a hand on Pepper's arm, quietly assuring, "I can promise you that we're doing everything we can and I swear that someone will let you know when you're able to sit with him again so for now, please try to get some rest." Plea made, Fry turned and walked away, leaving them to their own devices.

Pepper looked over at Peter and realized how lost he looked as he watched the doctor disappear. Her maternal instincts kicked in and she laid her hand on his arm, waiting until he turned to look at her before she asked, "Peter, are you alright?"

Peter smiled sadly at her concern, appreciating the fact that she asked but too guarded to let her know how distressed and frightened he actually was. He looked her in the eyes and did something he had been doing a lot recently, he lied, "I'm okay, Pepper. I'm scared but I know he's going to be okay." When she smiled softly at him and laid her hand on his cheek, Peter knew that he had fooled her.

Pepper knew he was lying to her, no one was that perpetually optimistic. And May had told her what he was trying to do. But still, she was astounded at how strong he was. Unfortunately, she knew she wasn't going to get anything out of him but she resolved to keep asking, to keep making sure there wouldn't be a time he would need her. For now, she acquiesced to his unspoken request. She finally smiled at him and said, "Let's listen to Laura, what do you say we try to sleep in our own rooms tonight?"

Peter forced himself to smile and agree, following her to the elevator. It was a few minutes of silence but once they made it up to their floor, the three exchanged goodnights before Pepper led Morgan to their room. That left Peter awkwardly standing in the darkened living room. He felt bad about lying to Pepper and that guilt tumbled with the fear and anxiety that was already twisting in his mind, leaving him more exhausted than he had been in a long time.

He felt like he was drifting.

Normally, if he felt like this, he did something to fix it. But he couldn't do anything here, he could only sit and wait. It was terrible.

And it made him feel bizarrely trapped.

There was no one in the Compound who knew how he was feeling and the one person he normally went to for mooring was the cause of his disquiet. That left him drifting into increasingly dangerous seas. He was assaulted by images of seizures and horrific injuries and there was no one around to make it stop. He dug his fingers into the side of his head and squeezed his eyes shut against the images, trying to make them stop long enough for him to find his bedroom. Then he could break.

Once he was somewhere on his own, he could break.

Then he could rebuild his walls.

That thought was enough to illuminate his course of action and with a purpose he felt like he hadn't had in months, he turned and dragged himself into his room. His only thought was to crawl into bed, pull his covers over his head, and cry until he passed out.

It was a testament to just how tired he was, that Peter crawled into bed before he realized that the sheets were tugged too far over to one side…and wrapped around another person. At first, Peter thought he was imagining it and he continued to slide into bed, pulling the sheets over, freezing only when they refused to give. Lying on his back, he tentatively turned to try to identify his apparent guest. As his eyes adjusted fully to the darkness of the room, he looked directly into Michelle's deep brown eyes. She was laying on her side and watching him silently. Even in the dark he was able to read the sympathy and the sorrow reflected in her gaze and it was enough to cause a resounding crack in the tight walls he had been maintaining around his family. As she held his gaze, that fissure finally gave way and the wall broke.

As if sensing his weakness, Michelle scooted forward and pulled him toward her, tightly wrapping her arms around him just before he started to cry. It wasn't a practiced motion, it was awkward and tense but as soon as she could, she rubbed her hand lightly over his back, silently lending him strength he was sorely lacking. Giving him a shoulder to cry on.

And he selfishly took advantage of it. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her just a little closer so he could bury his head in her shoulder. And he cried, actually cried. Released everything that he had been holding onto since this had started.

At some point, FRIDAY's voice broke the heart-rending sobs, "Peter, is everything alright?"

But it was Michelle that answered, "It's alright, FRIDAY, I've got him."

"Of course Ms. Jones."

At some point, Peter had cried all he could but he wasn't tired, he just felt frustrated, angry, and scared at all the uncertainty. Sensing the change, Michelle shifted under him, sitting up against the headboard and letting him rest on her stomach, his arms tight around her waist. It gave her a chance to comb her fingers through his hair and offer some kind of comfort. Still, she could feel how tightly coiled he was and knowing that wasn't healthy, she gently asked, "Do you want to talk about what happened?"

He wanted to say no, he didn't want her to know anything about it but he had been so ready to break, so ready to attempt to deal with this on his own that he couldn't help but talk, "He…he had a seizure…His brain's bleeding and they had to take him in for another surgery…he's out but...we can't see him for at least a day…" Then he looked up at her and asked the one thing he was terrified to voice, "What if he dies? What if he dies and no one's there?" Then it all tumbled out from there, "What if I'm not there? I'll never get to…I've been away all semester, I've barely talked to him…after everything he's done for me…"

Michelle wasn't having it though and she cut him off, "Peter stop. If you even think to question whether your dad knows you love him, I will leave you. Plus, talking to someone every week is not barely talking to them." She realized that was definitely not the best way to go about helping so she mentally chastised herself and softened her tone, continuing, "Tony is going to be okay. He's going to be in a lot of pain for a very long time and he's probably going to need help for a long time but he's going to survive. You're going to be there and you're going to help him because he would do it for you and then, once you go back to school, you're going to call him every day instead of once or twice a week."

Peter smiled at her conviction, reveling in the confidence that he associated with her but at the same time, he had such a hard time believing her. He badly wanted to but he had lost so many people already that he wasn't sure if belief was even possible.

"I'm so scared…" Peter started, trailing off before he could finish the obvious statement.

Still a half finished statement was only obvious if one was assuming the rest of the it and Michelle was too worried about being wrong to fill in the blanks so she prodded him to finish, "What are you scared of?"

Peter closed his eyes tight and breathed through his nose a few times before he answered, "If he dies…" Peter choked on the prospect before he forced himself to continue, "If he dies, Morgan is gonna have to grow up without a father. I've done that, it sucks..." He dragged in a shaky breath as he whispered, "If he dies…I'll lose another dad…"

Michelle was taken aback by his statement. She knew that his parents had died when he was little and that his uncle had died during the end of their freshman year but he didn't like to talk about it. All she could do was lamely answer, "Tony isn't going to die, Peter. You have to stop thinking that he's going to." Her voice dropped into a whisper, "Tony isn't going to leave you." Michelle felt the tears pooling in her eyes as she said that and she bit her lip, staring hard at the ceiling. If Peter heard her cry, he was going to shut down. When he turned his face into her stomach and sniffled again, she tasted blood as she dammed her tears. Once she felt like she had a handle on her emotions, she quietly asked, "Have you talked about this with Pepper or May?"

Peter mumbled, "No."

Michelle knew the answer but needed to hear him say it anyway so she gently followed with, "And why not?"

Peter's voice was still muffled when he responded, "They're already upset, I don't want to make them more upset by bringing up my issues."

Michelle almost told him how stupid that was, almost told him that they would not care and that they wouldn't begrudge him talking about it but something made her pause. Maybe it was what Tony had told her at graduation, maybe it was just knowing Peter as well as she did but something made her stop. And she took a breath before she simply said, "I understand." Then she wrapped her arms tighter around him.

They were quiet for a time. Michelle actually thought that Peter had fallen asleep and she was starting to doze off herself when his quiet voice broke the silence, "What if he doesn't remember me?"

That stunned her more than what he had said earlier and her eyes snapped open in surprise before she asked, "What? Where is that coming from?" She cursed silently when she heard the slight sharpness in her voice, now was _not_ the time.

Peter shrugged before he continued, "I don't…I don't know. I just can't help but think that with how bad his injuries are…I mean seizures and cerebral hemorrhages can lead to memory loss…What if he doesn't remember who I am? I can't deal with that MJ…I can't…I don't know what I would do if that happened."

But Michelle was already shaking her head, "Don't say that, Peter. Tony would never forget you. Ever. It's not possible for a parent to forget their kids." As soon as she said it, she knew that was factually wrong. Of course that happened. It happened every day because of diseases or accidents or a thousand other reasons. It was possible but for as much as she valued the brunt truth, it just couldn't be true. That could not happen to him, he was too good a person for the world to be that cruel. And deep down, she wasn't sure if she would be able to watch it if it was.

Peter hugged her tight and whispered, "Thanks, Michelle." He wasn't sure why but something about her conviction made him feel better. There was a strength there that he needed badly.

Michelle continued to run her hand through his hair before she whispered in return, "Always, Peter."

Their world lapsed into silence again. Peter chewed over what she had said and he wasn't sure why but he suddenly felt the need to share the worst thing about him. The bloody, tainted threat he had silently made when Happy had told him about what happened. The thing that he had every intention of leaving buried. Until now. It was a terrifying prospect and there was a part of him that was unsure of how she would take it but he desperately needed to voice it before it strangled him. Peter hid his face in her shirt again before he muttered, "I wanna kill him." As soon as the implications were comprehendible, Peter felt Michelle's arms tighten again, almost painfully this time.

"Who?" Michelle asked carefully, nearly positive she knew exactly who he was talking about but still wanting clarification.

Peter snarled, "The man who hit him. The one who caused all this."

Michelle shifted, sitting up higher against the headboard and pulling him up with her.

When that was her reaction, Peter panicked and pushed out of her arms. He pulled back, fixing her with a searching gaze as he tried to figure out what she was thinking, terrified of what she was going to say. Maybe he had gone too far in voicing that, maybe he should have left that crammed down deep in his soul where he had hidden the face of the only person he had killed.

But Michelle's expression was hard and her voice cut like a diamond when she snarled, "Yah I get that." Then the biting tone disappeared as she deflated and said, "But you can't."

Peter released the breath he was holding when she said she understood, at least she wasn't about to run but he was so vulnerable that he needed the reason, "Why not?"

Michelle looked passed him, collecting her thought before she sighed and took up his gaze, explaining, "The man who hurt your dad deserves to be punished for what he did…but by the law, not by a superhero. The things you stand for Peter, the people you help, the kids who look up to you, they're the same people your dad fought so hard for so long to protect and you can't break the inherent promises you've both made just to make yourself feel momentarily better. And don't get me wrong, if you break his face or his arms or his legs or his ribs, or just…him…you will feel better but that brief flash of…whatever the feeling will be will pale in comparison to how you'll feel when you see Tony again or Morgan or Pepper. If you take revenge on this man for what he did to your family, when you see your family again, you're only going to feel the biting twinge of your failure and his pain. You don't want that associated with them. That would destroy you, Peter."

Peter watched the sincerity in her eyes and he felt tears spring back into his. She was right, he knew she was right but he couldn't help but whisper, "You're right but I wish you weren't."

Michelle shrugged, her lip curling just a bit into a faux smile before she replied, "Honestly, I really wish I was wrong about that too. I would help you if I could."

Peter was actually a little surprised by her response and he told her as much in a look, only for it to be brushed off.

She dropped her gaze to the bed and twisted her fingers in the blanket before she responded shyly, "Yah I know, I know. But honestly, Peter, with this, I'd help." She shrugged and looked back up at him before she continued, "What can I say? I hate him for hurting Tony and I hate the fact that he did _this_ to you."

It was about as inarticulate as Peter had ever seen her. And yet the sentiment made him feel so much better because it meant he wasn't crazy, he wasn't somehow wrong for feeling like it would make him feel better to break this man's face. He hugged her again and was desperately afraid to let go because at this moment, she was the only person who knew what he was going through and he was suddenly, oddly terrified of losing that connection. He had been on his own before, why was it so hard now?

Whether she sensed what he was thinking or just recognized his need, Michelle hugged him tightly in return. Eventually, she slid back down so she was resting more on the pillow and whispered, "Sleep, Peter. I'll stay here for as long as you need." In confirmation, she started carding her hands through his hair, trying to convince him to sleep.

Peter listened.

* * *

When he woke up the next morning, he felt a little better. He wasn't suddenly okay and his world hadn't stopped trying to tear him apart at the seams but it did feel like some of the pressure had lessened a bit.

Peter realized he could breathe.

He was still clinging to Michelle and she had apparently had a similar idea because her arms were wrapped around him as well. But as he started to stir, she woke up with a small smile before she sleepily whispered, "Hey, Peter."

He couldn't help but smile back when he replied, "Hey, MJ." Then he remembered something that occurred to him as he was falling asleep. He looked up at her and asked, "What made you come to my room last night?"

"Honestly, I know Pepper gave us guest rooms but I figured you might need someone to talk to, so I've been staying in here most nights just to make sure that you didn't need anything if you did come back. This is just the first night you haven't slept in your dad's room." Michelle blushed uncharacteristically as she dropped her eyes and mumbled, "'m sorry if that was weird, I just thought that if you needed something I could guarantee that I could see you alone in here. Anywhere else in this place is kind of a crapshoot."

Peter was quick to reassure her, "No, I appreciate it...a lot." His face dropped as he said, "It was nice to talk."

She hugged him and said, "Well, I'm here for the duration." Trying to keep his mind on the more positive interaction they were having and knowing he couldn't go see Tony for at least half a day, Michelle tried to distract him by asking, "Want to grab some breakfast?"

Peter recognized what she was doing and he was thankful for it. He quickly agreed before he added, "Just let me take a shower real quick and then we can go make something."

Michelle nodded her acceptance of the plan, pulling a book out of the bag she had by the bed. She smiled up at Peter before she flipped it open and dug her nose into it. But when the water in the other room didn't start, Michelle flicked her eyes up and saw Peter still watching her. She smirked and quipped, "I thought you wanted to take a shower?" The flippant remark had no force behind it and the little it did have was belied by her now kind, if shy, smile.

Peter returned the smile and grabbed clothes out of his drawer before he slid into the bathroom.

Within a half an hour, they were digging through the well-stocked fridge trying to find eggs and vegetables for omelets. When they finally found what they wanted, they got to work. As they cut up the ingredients, Michelle actively tried to distract Peter, talking way more than she usually did about her classes and the books she was reading for the last few weeks of the semester. They were chatting about a book she had to read for her humanities class on the social implications of French wine after World War II when May stepped into the living room. For a moment, the two froze. They shared a look that communicated their fear before Peter sheepishly asked, "Did we wake you up, May?"

May gave them a soft smile, "No you didn't, it was time for me to get up anyway."

Michelle threw in, "Do you want an omelet?"

May jokingly narrowed her eyes at the two, asking, "Who's cooking?"

Michelle raised her hand first, shooting a smug look over at Peter when May responded, "Then I would love one."

The two went back to cutting as May made the coffee, all three of them settling into an easy rhythm that almost offset the constant background knowledge of why they were cooking in the Stark's kitchen. It wasn't long after May, that Pepper and Morgan joined them. May poured her some coffee while Michelle plated up an omelet for the two of them. The family sat down to something close to normal as they waited to hear anything out of the med wing.

* * *

**We're getting there! I promise!**

**So Peter finally broke, I figured it needed to happen eventually and I hope the way I wrote it made sense. **

**Feel free to comment and let me know what you thought!**

**I hope you have a wonderful day/night and stay creative!**

**-Lily**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey everyone! **

**I have another chapter for you :) Thank you to my awesome readers, you guys are amazing. And as it is now my favorite tradition, a special shout out to my reviewers, thank you to:**

**\- the lovely Proud Hollander, I guess you just have to read to find out...but if he does, please don't throw your phone! Then you won't be able to read fanfics! I love LOTR, Tolkien is my favorite author ever and I have almost everything he's written. But I'm sorry you weren't able to go :( Hopefully you get to go eventually! That is a really interesting description of the pineapple lumps and now I kind of want to look them up on Amazon to see what they cost to ship - I really love caramel...the thing about pavlova kind of makes sense but it's also now something I want to try because I really like meringue...do you put it on pies or cakes? I hope you enjoy this update!**

**\- the astounding Oriande Moonshadow, I don't know...you just have to read and find out. Also the character development is fantastic and I hope that after you see it that Michelle is still in character in here! Thank you and I hope you didn't cry too much!**

**\- the terrific carajiggirl, Thanks so much :) I really wanted to be able to work her in and I'm glad that you are liking their relationship!**

**\- the remarkable wisegirlMJ, Thanks! I actually really lo****ve writing MJ more than I thought I would :) And I didn't think of that but I could definitely try to add something like that, I'm going to mull that one over.**

**\- the stupendous JohnGilbertVampirehunter, I'm glad you caught that :) Thanks for saying that and I'm glad you liked the part with Michelle, she's really fun to write for! Phew about the last scene, I always get nervous writing ones like that so I'm glad it worked!**

**Thank you again to all my reviewers and those of you who favorited and followed :) It's cool to see and it means a lot!**

**So without further ado...**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

By noon, Peter and Morgan had most of Morgan's extensive toy collection spread across the middle of the Stark living room. They were currently in the process of building Lego creations in the middle of a blanket fort Peter had frustratingly constructed with constantly slipping comforters and not a small amount of webbing. Happy had gotten a call from someone and judging by his voice as he stepped out of the room, it was not going to be a pleasant conversation for whoever was on the other end. Pepper and May talked haltingly about anything that came to mind, and Michelle was curled up in one of the chairs, writing a précis for her class. Michelle worked hard to keep her attention on the screen. Her eyes constantly wandered to the two playing in the fort or over to Pepper and May's conversation and she wished she was done so she could help break even a fraction of the tension in the room.

The comfort of breakfast had long worn away and it left behind a strange, strained day because it was one of wiling away the hours, not unlike when they stayed with Tony but this time the pent up stress of not knowing was wearing on everyone. Mercifully, it was only a few hours later that some of the other Avengers appeared in the elevator. It was as if they knew the family would need some kind of reprieve. They brought snacks and the promise of reinvigorated conversation.

It helped a bit.

They ordered dinner and watched movies, trying to keep each other busy until the ban was lifted. Unfortunately, as the hour slipped closer to the next day, it became apparent they were going to have to wait another night. When Morgan fell asleep against Peter's chest, the others excused themselves and headed down to their own rooms in the hopes of letting the exhausted family get some sleep.

The five left behind didn't last much longer after that. Pepper stood first and carefully gathered up her sleeping son before May and Peter followed her lead. Michelle mimicked their motion. They said awkward goodnights before they hesitantly turned away from each other and headed to their rooms. Everyone but Michelle. She stood frozen in front of her chair because she wasn't actually sure where to go. She glanced between Peter and her room. Today had been hard on him, she could tell, and after last night she wasn't sure if he would want to be on his own. But she also knew this was his family, and family can sometimes get a little weird when girlfriends spend the night. Thankfully, it didn't take long for him to notice her concern because without hesitation, he shyly called, "MJ…" He didn't say anything else, just held out his hand. Feeling more secure in knowing what he needed, Michelle stepped close enough to take it and followed him into his room. If May or Pepper heard or noticed, neither said anything.

They silently crawled into his bed and like the night before, he clung to her like his life depended on it and she carded her hands through his hair until he fell asleep. As she drifted off, Michelle couldn't help but hope that this was going to have a happy ending soon.

The next day, they received word that they were allowed back down into the med bay.

* * *

Two days later, Sposek stopped by Tony's room. Pepper was sitting with Happy and May. Peter had agreed to help Michelle with something and Morgan was taking a nap in his own room.

When he stepped inside, none of the gathered visitors looked up and Sposek's nerves ratcheted up a bit before he cleared his throat. When they gave him their attention, he swallowed back his nervousness and addressed them, "Ms. Potts, Mrs. Parker, Mr. Hogan." When they looked at him expectantly but didn't say anything he hemmed for a moment before he tried one of Fry's methods, bluntly stating, "Mr. Stark's getting stronger and we've been noticing significant improvement. If that continues, he could potentially wake up by the end of the week. As it is, we're going to start reducing the sedatives to give him a chance to come out of this on his own. And when he does, we'll be able to remove the intubation."

"When?" Pepper asked hopefully.

He heard the anticipation in her voice and he hurried to stoke it, feeling the nerves melt away, he explained, "As soon as possible. There are always risks to keeping someone on a ventilator for too long. We would like to hedge against those as much as possible and while that doesn't mean he won't still need a cannula, it does mean he's getting better."

"What are the chances of…something else happening?" Pepper asked carefully, nervous of the answer.

Sposek frowned but elaborated, "There is still a chance but it's much slimmer than it was before. He's not critical anymore, at this point we would classify him in serious condition, and if he wakes up, fair. But we're not expecting any more episodes." He cocked his head to the side for a moment as he tried to clarify what he meant, "Dr. Strange is still consulting and he's concurred with our analysis. Mr. Stark should be awake by the end of the week."

Pepper pressed her hand to her mouth as tears sprang into her eyes, it was the best news she had received since this all started and she couldn't help but grab May's hand, clutching it tightly as she squeezed her eyes shut. She took a few calming breaths before she asked, "Are you expecting any complications when he does wake up?"

Sposek answered honestly, "I would rather not speculate right now. There are a few things that we cannot test for and therefore won't know until he wakes up. It would simply be guesswork right now and that would be of no benefit to anyone." He swallowed hard against his suddenly dry throat, that was the closest he had come to confrontational with Pepper Potts and he wasn't quite sure that he ever wanted to do it again. He waited with bated breath, praying that none of the fear was showing on his face.

Pepper mulled over what the doctor had said and thought about arguing and asking for more but May squeezed her hand. Pepper glanced over as May subtly shook her head before she whispered, "Pepper, you don't need to know all that. Knowing would make it harder on you and Peter for an indeterminate amount of time. It's not worth it right now. They don't know anything."

Pepper felt a few tears run down her cheeks and she watched May for a long moment before she nodded. Brushing her hand across her nose, she whispered, "You're right." Then she turned to the doctor, her voice a little stronger, "Thank you Dr. Sposek."

"Of course, Ms. Potts." Sposek swallowed hard again before he excused himself.

* * *

It had been five days since he had been allowed back into the room and Peter felt the tension building in his chest again. Tony still hadn't woken up. And while the doctors didn't seem concerned, they only talked about improving vitals and timelines but none of them were right.

And he kept lying to Pepper and May whenever they asked him if he was okay.

And then he told Michelle all of it whenever they were alone, which was rarely enough that he always had something to tell her. Some worry to voice. Some other reason to feel guilty for dragging her into this.

All of it twisted around, grating on Peter's frayed nerves.

As his mind tumbled over the darkened thoughts, Michelle was laying on the floor, a pillow under her head and her feet propped up on Peter's thighs while she read. Her presence was calming but not enough to give him any hope of focusing. Peter knew he should be working on his project or some of his other homework or...something but he was too distracted to make that possible. Instead, he was slouched back in his chair, a hand on Michelle's leg as his physics textbook was balanced, forgotten on his lap. His other hand was supporting his chin as he stared, his attention split between his dad and the back wall. On one of his wandering passes, he saw his dad's face crinkle. It was a slight movement but since the doctors were talking about him waking up, a small movement could be enough. Peter focused.

Tony's face scrunched up again and he groaned around the ventilator.

For a moment, Peter was terrified that what had happened before was happening again but then Tony weakly turned his head against the pillow. He choked a little on the tube. This was different.

This was different and Peter knew it.

Forgetting he was also an ottoman, Peter jumped to his feet and fell over the bed. He snatched up his dad's hand with one of his and put the other on Tony's shoulder. He couldn't have stopped himself from talking if he had wanted and his voice was soft as he started, "Dad? Dad, are you waking up? Cause if you are, you have to stay calm, okay? They have a bite block in and you're intubated. You have to stay calm." Peter squeezed Tony's shoulder as he tried to encourage him, not that he knew if any of this was getting though. Still, he kept going, "You should though…wake up I mean…we've all been waiting a while to see you."

Michelle's feet came down hard, jarring her heels and knees as she slapped her book down in her lap and snapped her eyes to Peter, a biting remark already on her tongue. Thankfully, she looked at him before she said it. Although a part of her knew that even if she had said something, he wouldn't have heard it. He was leaning forward over the bed, Tony's hand clutched tightly in his and he was talking. She tucked her legs back and climbed to her feet, watching with bated breath as Peter begged Tony to open his eyes.

Peter was debating calling the doctors. He knew that FRIDAY would get them automatically if she had to but since he hadn't heard any running feet, he was assuming they hadn't been called yet. Still if he needed to…and then Tony's good eye cracked open, making Peter's decision for him. Urgently, he called out, "FRIDAY, get someone down here."

There was a brief pause before the AI responded, "They will be down momentarily, Peter."

Waking up was never fun. In fact, of all the things about being a superhero, waking up after being injured was probably the worst feeling in the world. The first thing that hit him was the pain. It wasn't sharp, it couldn't be. Tony knew that if he was in a bed, they had him on enough painkillers to make sure he couldn't see straight, let alone feel any pain. Still, it was there, a lurking heat that promised a long recovery. He could tell that the majority of the injuries were on his left but nothing felt like it was missing. Tony tried to remember what happened to land him into the hospital this time, he hadn't been out doing any Iron Manning for a while. And he hadn't blown himself up in the lab recently either. He forced himself to focus his wobbling mind. It took a minute but then he remembered he had been…at a conference. Was there an attack of some kind? The more he thought about it, the more agitated he became because there was just a blank spot in his memory. He forced himself to calm down, to take a breath…

And couldn't.

His fear spiked, why couldn't he breathe? He was getting air. He knew what it felt like to suffocate, this was not that. This was different and the lack of knowledge caused him to spiral further into terrified frustration.

He tried to suck in another breath, only to end up blocked again.

Something was wrong and he needed to figure it out. Now.

He needed to see what was going on so he forced his eyes open. Or his eye. Tony instantly recognized the lack of depth perception when only one eye respond to his mind's demands.

Tony's gaze wandered too slowly for his overwrought mind as he tried to focus on something but all he was getting was the white ceiling and a little of the soft cream walls. Was there anyone in the room with him? At that thought, Tony panicked. Actually panicked. Someone would have been there. Did something happen to his family?

Tony's gaze was lazily roving over the room and Peter wasn't actually sure if he could see anything but figured that until he was told differently, he would assume he could. Not waiting for Tony to see him, Peter leaned into his sight line, watching carefully for any kind of recognition as fear sat like a weight on his chest.

Tony felt the knot of terror loosen when Peter leaned over him. Someone was there. If he could have let out a sigh of relief he would have but instead, he just forced himself to focus on his son. Unfortunately, the first thing Tony noticed was Peter's fear. He was trying to hide it but Tony had seen his son afraid more often than he wanted to count and it made it impossible for Peter to hide it now. The brief reprieve of seeing him ended when Pepper and Morgan did not also immediately appear. Why weren't they here too? Why else would Peter be so afraid? Forgetting the fact that he couldn't breathe, Tony still tried to talk, wanting to reassure some of the terror off Peter's face and find out where the others were. Unfortunately, all that came out was a groan. But, the clarity of his focus on Peter helped to clear Tony's mind and he lethargically realized there was a block between his teeth. He scrunched his nose in frustration and impatience, only to flinch as the motion caused pain to shoot through his skull. What the hell happened to him? But that didn't really matter because Peter was frightened and he was leaning over him and Tony didn't know where Pepper and Morgan were. Those answers were Tony's only motivation. Or at least, that's what should have been but his eye was currently attempting to slip closed. Against his wishes. Tony forced himself to stay awake.

Peter saw the recognition in Tony's expression and felt the tears start to pool in the corners of his eyes. His dad hadn't forgotten him. While that caused his chest to swell, Peter also saw the enervation in Tony's face. Peter took a cue from his dad and brushed his hand back through Tony's hair, getting his attention again, before he said, "The doctors are coming right now, they'll take this out and then you can go back to sleep, okay?"

Tony kind of felt like he was listening to Peter talk underwater. He was saying something about doctors and he assumed that meant he was going to be able to breathe on his own soon. And ask questions. He was trying to concentrate but then a movement behind Peter caught his distracted attention. There was a slight brunette balancing just over Peter's shoulder. Her small movements caught Tony's attention but it took him a long moment to remember who she was. A new question joining the others.

Then he saw her a little more clearly when Peter glanced back over his shoulder and said something before he looked back at Tony with a smile.

That was when Tony remembered her. Her name was Mic…Michelle…and he was one of the people who was allowed to call her MJ. She was Peter's girlfriend. What was she doing here? And then for the second time in as many minutes, Tony found his mind wondering to the very pertinent question of what the hell had happened to him?

Then he mentally shook himself, that was not what mattered right now.

He shifted his attention fully back to Peter, trying to convey…anything…through his gaze. And when Peter glanced away from him again, Tony squeezed his hand, trying to get his attention back but it didn't work. Peter squeezed his hand in response but was talking to someone on Tony's left. Then Peter pulled his hand away and stepped out of Tony's eye line. Tony felt his anxiety spike, he breathed hard against the tube and choked out what was meant to be his son's name but nothing but a groan was vocalized. Then people he didn't recognize stepped around him, surrounding him.

Peter heard the telltale signs of panic almost immediately after he stepped away from the bed. Unwilling to let that stand, Peter pushed passed the nurse who had stepped in front of him and took up Tony's hand again, leaning over. He felt the trembling ease and he waited until Tony's gaze fixed on him before he started talking slowly, "Dad, they're gonna take the tube out, okay? I can't be over here because I'll be in the way but I'm gonna stand over there with Michelle." Peter tossed his head over his shoulder but didn't break eye contact. Then he kept going, "I promise, I'll be right back but you have to let them do this."

Tony got the gist of what Peter was saying and he tried to nod but couldn't quite get his head to cooperate so instead, he squeezed Peter's hand.

Peter smiled before he gave Tony's hand one final squeeze and slowly let go, taking a step back and letting the doctors do what they needed to do.

As soon as Peter stepped back next to her, Michelle grabbed his hand and wrapped her other one around his arm, trying to offer him some comfort. She could feel the tension in the muscle and it only worsened as Tony started to cough and struggle as the doctors did their job. Michelle knew he was avoiding squeezing her hand because he could very easily break it and in response, she tucked herself closer to his side. The sound was terrible for her and she could only imagine what it was like for Peter. Still, there wasn't anything she could say to make this better.

It only took a few minutes before Tony started to cough against the tube. It was possible to hear it scratch its way up his throat as it was pulled free but as soon as the bite block was removed, Tony called out to the son he knew was in the room. His voice was cracked and broken, as he managed to croak out, "Pete…" He coughed hard against the roughness and then groaned as the action jarred his apparently broken chest before he forced again, "Peter…"

Peter immediately dropped Michelle's hand and pushed through the nurses around the bed. He grabbed ahold of Tony's hand with both his. Without paying attention to the people around him, he started talking, "Hey…I'm right here. I'm right here."

That was enough. Tony groaned out, "Hey…" He wasn't sure why, but he couldn't ignore the immense relief as he saw his son again.

"Hey, dad." Tears welled in Peter's eyes as he tried to keep it together until Tony fell back to sleep. Still, his dad was awake and Peter couldn't control the few tears that slipped passed his guard.

Tony was a little surprised by the emotion, Peter only cried in front of people when something was really wrong and Tony immediately needed to know what it was. His brow furrowed before he asked in a cracked whisper, "Waz 'rong, Pete? Wha' happen'd?"

Peter gave him a soft smile but he filled Tony in the best he could, "Nothing's wrong, not anymore…you were in a bad car accident, dad. Someone hit you." Peter could feel the anger welling up in his gut but he was too happy to have his dad back that it didn't show through.

"Oh…" Was all Tony could say. He tried to force himself to remember that but nothing was coming to mind, the last thing he remembered was being at dinner with the conference organizers. And…someone called him…but the details were fuzzy. Then he remembered his earlier thought and he squeaked out, "'re...you 'kay?"

Peter pulled back in surprise, he didn't have a scratch on him but he saw the seriousness in Tony's face so he quickly answered, "Me? Yah I'm fine. It was you we were all worried about."

Tony relaxed slightly but still needed to know about the rest of his family and he groaned, "Morgan…Pep'r?"

Peter's frown deepened but he obliged an answer, "Everyone's okay, dad. I promise. Everyone's okay. You were the only one in the car." Peter felt Tony physically relax when he said that. Peter was a little concerned by the confusion, but he just assumed Tony's mind was a little scrambled after the accident and he was afraid to push him so he didn't say anything else.

Michelle watched the exchange awkwardly. Without Peter realizing it, the doctor and nurses had slipped out. That left Michelle feeling like she should join them. She kind of felt like she was intruding. She had seen Peter at his weakest but she had been allowed to be there. Well, kind of allowed. But this was different, this was a moment for him and Tony and she did not feel right being there. Still, she was afraid to make her presence known by trying to slip out now so instead, she tried to be as quiet as she could, tucking herself into a corner chair. She tried not to listen but the concern in Tony's voice when he asked it everyone was alright caused Michelle's throat to tighten in sorrow.

Once Tony knew that everyone else was okay, he realized he needed to fill in the rest of the story, asking, "How long?"

Peter knew exactly what he meant and he dropped his head onto their clutched hands before he looked back up at him and whispered, "Thirteen days."

Tony watched his son dumbfounded, that was a long time to wait for someone and he suddenly understood that what he was reading in Peter's eyes alongside the fear, it was pain. Tony's chest ached as he processed that before he whispered back, "'m sorry, Pete."

Peter shook his head and assured, "It's okay, dad. It's okay now." He smiled, actually smiled and unconsciously scooted a little closer, tucking Tony's hand closer to his chest, explaining, "I'm glad you're awake."

Tony gave him a gruesome half smile before he tried to talk again, "How ba'?"

Peter frowned and whispered, "It's pretty bad. You're gonna be in here for a while. And then you're gonna have to do some serious physical therapy." Then he remembered what Michelle had said and added resolutely, "But I'm gonna help, I'm gonna stay here."

Tony felt the exhaustion he had been trying to ignore forcing itself in on the edges of his consciousness. He wasn't going to be able to stay awake for much longer. Still, he wanted to make sure that Peter was okay because he didn't look like he was. Tony widened his eye in an attempt to wake himself up for a few more moments. Once he had his attention back, he squeezed Peter's hand as tightly as he could and tried to convey his concern, "Don't lie…waz 'rong…with you? Somet'in's 'rong, can tell…" He blinked but the motion took a little too long. He was rapidly losing his struggle.

Peter felt the tears he had been fighting roll slowly down his cheeks as he realized that Tony knew him better than almost anyone. And Peter knew for his own sanity that he had to be honest. Swallowing hard, he tried to sum it up, "I…I was afraid, dad…" Peter swallowed, he didn't want to tell Tony the whole truth but he also knew that Tony would worry if he didn't get honesty. Peter continued, "I thought…I was afraid you might not make it out of this one."

Tony gave him a sad smile and rasped, "'m here, Pete...not goin' an'whe...re...soon." Then he used the last of his energy to tug on Peter's hand.

Peter recognized the motion and leaned forward, carefully pressing his forehead into Tony's shoulder before taking a deep breath, finally feeling the continuous swirling of his mind quiet for the first time in almost two weeks. The tears started to fall faster and Peter clutched Tony's hand in a death grip, well almost a death grip, he didn't want to hurt him again.

Tony ached to comfort his son but he couldn't, he wasn't able to move his left hand and Peter was gripping his right already. Instead, all he could do was talk, "It's 'kay Pete…it's 'kay. 'm sorry...scared you. 'm sorry you had ta deal with...this." The exhaustion was still building and it was getting harder to push it away.

Peter finally sat up and looked at Tony, his eyes were red but dry. His voice cracked when he answered, "It's okay, dad. I'd rather be here." Peter saw the exhaustion fighting Tony's considerable determination and realized his dad was avoiding sleep and that was a bad thing. Peter knew what needed to happen and his voice was quiet when he ordered, "Go to sleep, dad. I'm going to stay here for as long as you need me to."

"M'kay." Tony whispered before his eye slipped closed.

Peter sat back, falling into the chair behind him, still unable to relinquish his dad's hand. The reality slammed into him, bringing a sense of relief that caused silent tears to fall while he let out a shaky breath. Peter watched Tony sleep for just a little bit longer before he jarred himself into the present and looked around the room, his gaze landing on Michelle. She was curled in one of the chairs in the back but her gaze was fixed on him. Peter scrunched his eyes a bit before he whispered, "I'm sorry for that MJ, do you want to leave?"

Michelle jumped up and slid into the seat next to him before she took his free hand, earnestly responding, "I don't want to leave unless you want me to leave. And you don't have to apologize. I just didn't want to be in the way."

Peter gave her a soft smile, "I don't want you to leave but I have to let the others know if they don't already."

Michelle nodded and narrowed her eyes as if asking if he was actually suggesting anything else before she answered, "Yah, definitely."

Peter watched her as he said, "FRIDAY, let Pepper and Morgan know that dad woke up."

The AI responded immediately, her voice as even and calm as always, "They are on their way down now, Peter."

* * *

**Holy crap, I'm so sorry to Proud Hollander and ****Oriande**** Moonshadow! I didn't actually think anyone would latch onto the forgetting bit, I just thought it would be something that someone as smart as Peter would think about. Especially because its pretty common for people to have some kind of memory loss/memory problems that come from bad accidents (at least from what Google told me). I don't know that I would be able to write that without balling my eyes out and that never makes for the greatest editing. So I hope this worked!**

**I hope you enjoyed where I ended up going with this story and that it makes sense. And yay, Tony's awake!**

**Feel free to let me know what you thought in the comments!**

**I hope you have a wonderful day/night and stay creative!**

**-Lily**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey everyone!**

**I have another chapter for you, I apologize for how long this one took to get out, I know I've been a little quicker before but for some reason I've been battling some really terrible writer's block and this took longer to write and get right than I wanted it too. That being said, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and I hope you like it!**

**As always I want to say thank you to my wonderful reviewers, you guys are awesome! So thank you to:**

**\- the wonderful carajiggirl, Aww thanks so much for saying that :) I'm glad that whole thing worked! And you'll have to keep reading to find out!**

**\- the fantabulous Proud Hollander, Honestly, I think warranties should cover that but you're right and they probably don't, I guess you could say it feel off a something...anyway, I'm glad you liked it so much but I'm sorry it made you cry! So pavlova sounds phenomenal and I kind of want to look up a recipe just to try making it because anything that is marshmellow-y, meringue-y, and has fruit in the middle is just amazing! That's awesome about LOTR! And no, you cannot ever been too obsessed with them ;) That would be an awesome present for finishing school and you should totally do that if you can! See and now I need to look up this hokey pokey recipe because that too sounds fantastic. I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**\- the awesome JohnGilbertVampirehunter, Thanks :) That's always something that takes some doing to write so I'm glad it worked! And you're definitely right on that one.**

**That's all I have for you for now so...**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Michelle watched Peter as they waited for the others to show up. Almost immediately, she could tell the weight that had been sitting on his shoulders had lessened significantly. But there was still something off about him, she couldn't quite put her finger on it but something was still not quite back to normal. After a few minutes of silent observation, Michelle quietly asked, "Are you okay?"

Peter wasn't paying attention and as if her voice scared him, he started before he murmured, "Hmm…what?"

Michelle gave him a soft smile and repeated herself, "Are you okay?"

Peter gave an exhausted sigh but whispered, "Yah…yah I am."

Michelle could see the relief in his eyes and she couldn't help but lean into his shoulder before she whispered, "Good." Some of her suspicion melted away with the response and for once she found herself second-guessing her assessment. Maybe he really was okay and what she thought she saw was just the last of his concern slipping away.

Peter closed his eyes and relished the intimacy before whispered, "You know, there have been a lot of times that I've dealt with stuff on my own because I don't like making people worry." Then he paused and pulled away from her, causing her head to fall away and forcing her to sit up and look at him before he continued, "I had every intention of doing that again…"

Michelle's narrowed eyes widened as he admitted that and she gently cut him off with a smirk, "I know."

Peter smiled and pressed his forehead against hers before he whispered, "Thank you."

* * *

Peter and Michelle had slipped into an easy conversation when suddenly Peter stopped mid-sentence and jumped up in time for Morgan, hair still wet from his bath, to bolt into the room ahead of his mom. On instinct, Peter positioned himself between the little boy and the bed, hands held out to the side like a goalie.

Morgan skid to a stop in front of his brother and looked up at him with momentary confusion before he happily cried, "FRIDAY said daddy woke up." Then he held his arms up so Peter could pick him up before he asked, "Please can I see him? I wanna see him."

Peter sighed and dropped into a crouch in front of his brother. He actively ignored the disappointment immediately apparent on Morgan's face before he explained, "Dad was awake but he fell back to sleep again."

"Wake him up." Morgan ordered childishly, shoving Peter's shoulder and ordering again, "I wanna see daddy, wake him up."

But before Peter could respond, Pepper knelt next to them and stepped in, "Peter can't do that, honey. Daddy's hurt remember? He needs to sleep." She pulled Morgan's hands off Peter's shoulder gently and then held them at Morgan's side.

"But…" Morgan trailed off, looking for something else to say. His bottom lip quivered, all excitement giving way to sadness, before he whispered, "I wanna see him…"

Pepper shifted her hands up to either side of Morgan's face as she brushed away his tears with gentle thumbs. Her voice was tender but firm as she explained, "I know, sweetie. But remember when you were sick and all you wanted to do was sleep? And when mommy tried to wake you up to give you medicine you would get mad?"

Morgan's tears continued to drip down his cheeks but Pepper had his undivided attention, even as he brushed a hand under his nose before he answered, "Uh-ha…"

Pepper smiled, letting him know it would be okay but willing him to understand the situation, "Well, it's kind of like daddy's sick right now and so he needs to sleep."

Morgan was quick and caught on to what Pepper was saying. He asked, "But what about when he needs medicine?"

"When he needs medicine, he'll wake up but right now he has all the medicine he needs." Pepper's voice was soothing as she continued to brush away his tears. Her patience honed from years of dealing with her little boy's father.

"But Peter always wakes up really fast…" Morgan pivoted the conversation as he glanced over at his brother, attempting to get his help.

Peter had been watching the exchange in awe of Pepper's ability to comfort Morgan so easily when he would have stuttered through some stupid answer. And now both their eyes were on him. His mind spun into overdrive as he tried to figure out how to explain his accelerated healing to a five-year old, even one as smart as Morgan. Still, Morgan was asking him a question, so he was going to try his best to answer it, "Buddy, you know how I can stick to walls?" He waited for Morgan to nod before he continued, "Okay well, one of the other things I can do is get better really fast. So if I get hurt like dad, or sick like you, I would be better in a couple of days…"

Morgan's huge blue eyes were fixed on him as he asked, "Daddy doesn't get better like that?"

That was when Peter realized that Morgan had never actually seen Tony badly injured and a huge part of him was thankful for that. And while he wasn't quite sure that false equivalences were the best thing to teach to a five-year-old, he figured he could explain it again when Morgan got older so Peter leaned into his explanation and asked, "Does dad stick to walls?"

"No…" Morgan whispered as the pieces clicked into place.

Peter was pretty sure he understood but just to be sure, he finished the idea, "Then he can't get better like me, Morgan, I'm sorry." He gestured at Pepper and then back to where he knew Michelle was sitting and tried to compromise, "But if you want, you can sit with me, your mom, and MJ until he wakes up."

Morgan looked hard at Peter as if he was trying to reconcile the obvious lessened tension in the room with the fact that he still couldn't see his dad. Once he seemed to come to some conclusion, he narrowed his eyes and asked, "Daddy's going to wake up, right? No more doctors and no more unconscious, daddy's just sleeping?"

Peter put his hands on Morgan's shoulders, looked him directly in the eyes, and swore, "I promise dad is just sleeping, I talked to him and MJ saw him too. He just fell asleep so when he isn't tired anymore, he'll wake up. Like you do when you wake up in the morning."

Morgan maintained his suspicious glare for a moment more before he looked over his brother's shoulder at Michelle, "Is that true, MJ?"

Michelle slipped out of her chair and crouched behind Peter, resting her hand on his shoulder before she answered with complete honesty, "It's true, Mo. Your daddy's going to be okay, he's just really tired right now."

Morgan looked between the three adults sitting in front of him as if he was trying to decipher the truth in their statements. When he finally accepted what they were saying, there was a decided shift to his posture. Morgan dropped his shoulders and visibly relaxed as he ended with his gaze fixed on Michelle. After another moment, he asked her pointedly, "Are you done with school?"

Michelle nodded and said with a smirk, "I am."

Morgan continued, "Will you tell me a story?"

Michelle's smirk widened into a smile before she asked, "What do you want to hear about?"

Morgan reacted to her calm demeanor, his own suspicion unconsciously disappearing when he replied, "Something weird."

"I knew you were my favorite Stark." Michelle quipped as she scooted away from Peter and slipped back into the chair she had been in before, holding her arms open and waiting for Morgan to sit down so she could tell him a story.

"You say that every time…" Morgan's face cracked into a wide smile and he quickly moved to climb into her lap, nuzzling into her shoulder and getting comfortable.

"Yah but it's true." Michelle promised, chewing on her lip in slight concentration as he settled down. Once he was comfortable she looked at him and asked, "Did I tell you about Gregor MacGregor yet?"

Morgan shook his head and stared up at her expectantly.

Michelle's eyes widened before she began her story with her trademark directness, "So a long time ago in the 1800s, Gregor pretended to be the prince of a country he made up…"

As she held Morgan enthralled, it gave Pepper a chance to lean over to Peter and whisper, "How was he?"

Peter looked up at Pepper with relief before he explained, "He was kind of confused and didn't remember the accident but he remembered us and seemed pretty with it, all things considered." He watched as Pepper let out a deep breath and relaxed considerably. She laid her hand on his arm and said, "Thank you for being here."

"Of course."

Pepper's eyes wandered over to Tony before flicking over to Michelle and Morgan. She watched them for a long second before she leaned closer to Peter and whispered, "She's very good with him."

"Yah she is." Peter returned before he looked up at Pepper with a smile, "She doesn't like everyone but Morgan's definitely special."

Pepper's smile widened at that, pride in her youngest clear on her face, before she asked, "Do you want to sit down?"

Peter nodded and both took up the continuously occupied seats but this time, the positivity in the room was palpable as the worst consequence of the accident was seemingly avoided.

* * *

It took another day before Tony woke up again. His family was already there, waiting.

"Pet'r…" Tony mumbled as he groaned his way into consciousness.

Peter had been working through some new calculations for his convertor when he heard his name. He dropped the pen and paper to the side before he slid forward and took Tony's hand. His voice was filled with relief when he replied, "Yah dad, I'm here." But instead of immediately opening his eyes, Tony groaned and rolled his head to the side as he tried to get through the discomfort of waking up again. Peter knew what would make it easier and encouraged him with a little more force, "Hey dad, do you think you could open your eyes? There are some people who have been waiting to see you."

For as out of it as he was, Tony understood that and hurriedly opened his good eye, his swollen left eye winking open as far as it could. His voice was scratchy and weak when he whispered, "Pep? Morgan?"

Peter smiled and squeezed his hand before he whispered, "Yah…" Then he turned sideways, allowing Tony to see the rest of his family.

Tony felt the slight pressure on his chest release as soon as he saw Pepper standing behind Peter with Morgan in her arms. Her eyes were filled with tears but she was smiling and Tony couldn't help it as his own eyes welled up at the sight.

Morgan immediately started to lean forward but she whispered to him and then looked at Peter. Peter understood what she needed and held his arms out to grab his little brother so Pepper could take Tony's hand. She leaned forward and pressed her forehead against Tony's before kissing his cheek. Peter heard her tell him that she loved him but then he was distracted by his increasingly squirming brother. He knew Morgan was going to want to see Tony but he flashed back to the time Pepper had let Morgan hug him after he had been injured. Without malicious meaning, Morgan had jumped into his arms and it had hurt but he had already healed enough that it didn't cause any damage. Unfortunately this was Tony and Peter was terrified that if Morgan jumped on him, the little boy could easily break another rib or worse and Peter could not allow for even the possibility of that. So in an effort to distract himself and make sure that Morgan could see their dad, Peter started talking quietly to his little brother, "Morgan? I need you to look at me for a minute, okay buddy?"

It took him a long second, but eventually the little boy tore his attention away from his parents.

Peter took that as his cue and spoke quickly, "I'm gonna ask dad if you can sit with him okay but do you remember when I was hurt and you jumped on me?"

Morgan nodded, the shadow of remorse clear on his face.

Peter was glad to see that and continued, his voice serious, "You absolutely cannot jump on dad that way. You could hurt him really badly if you do. Remember what I said about me healing faster?"

Morgan nodded again, his eyes glued to Peter's.

Peter capitalized on that focus and continued, "That means that you didn't really hurt me when you jumped on me but since dad doesn't have the fast healing, you could make him unconscious again. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"

Morgan nodded eagerly, proving he understood what his brother was telling him when he said, "I can't jump on daddy, if I do he'll sleep longer because I could hurt him."

Peter breathed a little easier and reiterated, "Exactly, so that means that if I put you on the bed, you can't jump anywhere, you can hug dad but you have to wait until I pick you up again."

Morgan nodded faster and started to fidget again in Peter's arms. His attention span was waning and he was ready to be put down.

But Peter needed a promise and his tone was deadly serious when he said, "You have to say that, buddy. I'm not letting you near the bed until you promise."

"' promise, Peter. No jumping."

Peter looked back over to the bed and saw Pepper and Tony looking at him expectantly. He carefully asked, "Can Morgan sit with you, dad?" He knew that Tony would get the underlying question he was asking but he also winced when he realized how terribly he had worded it because if Tony said no, it would hurt Morgan's feelings.

Tony knew exactly what Peter was thinking when he asked that and he had heard some of what his oldest had been saying while he had talked to Pepper. But Tony also knew Morgan would be fine. He smiled at the two of them and said, "Of course, Pete, lemme see him." He held his good arm out to the side.

Peter set Morgan down on the bed, his hands hovered over him and his senses focused, just in case. It wasn't a threat but he hoped it might work if Morgan tried anything. But Morgan was true to his word and he snuggled into Tony's shoulder whispering, "I missed you daddy."

Tony's eyes welled up again as he curled his good arm around Morgan and whispered, "I missed you too, buddy." Tony rubbed his arm across his youngest son's back as he took a shallow breath and relaxed, closing his eyes for just a minute. He could not get over how tired he was and his eyes stayed closed for a little longer than he meant them to, until he heard Morgan's voice cut through his exhaustion.

Almost as soon as Tony closed his eyes for longer than a blink, Morgan noticed. Not ready to have his dad fall back to sleep already, Morgan twisted his head up and demanded, "Don't sleep yet, daddy, you just woke up."

Tony forced his eyes back open and smiled down at his little boy, rubbing his hand along his back a few more times before he responded, "Sorry, buddy, I'm awake. So wanna tell me what you've been up to for the..." Tony scrunched his nose a bit as he tried to remember how long Peter told him he had been out but it wasn't quite coming to mind. There was still somewhat of a blank spot there. Instead he just said, "What've you been up to?"

Morgan smiled at the attention and started talking softly about spending time with Peter and Michelle and the rest of the Avengers while they waited for him to wake up. It was a rosy-colored version of events but one that gave Morgan the chance to talk about the limited bright spots in the last few weeks. The others jumped in from time to time but for the most part, they listened contentedly. Then Morgan started to tell the story that Michelle had told him earlier. Every once and a while he would look to her for confirmation of something he was saying. Michelle corrected pieces but mostly just let him go, pleased to see the family's happiness.

Tony managed to stay awake for a couple of hours before he fell back to sleep. Morgan managed to stay curled into Tony's side for the rest of the day, somehow squashing his normal tendency to fidget constantly and staying still exactly like he promised Peter he would. The others stayed at Tony's side, content at the progress.

* * *

Since Tony was getting strong and waking more regularly, it was easier for his family to comfortably sleep in their own beds after sitting with him all day.

After a few days of staying in Peter's room and having to slip into her's to get ready, Michelle had given up and moved her stuff into her boyfriend's. It was just easier that way. That being said, she still definitely snuck her stuff in when no one was watching. But her proximity also meant she noticed that even though Tony had woken up, the accident seemed to have dredged up some old wounds for Peter.

It wasn't anything consistent but she noticed he would have trouble falling asleep, be up a lot earlier than her, or toss and turn for most of the night. And even though they were sleeping, there were perpetual bags under his eyes. Michelle was starting to worry and assumed she was missing something but she was hesitant to call him on it until she knew that something more than worry was causing his fatigue.

* * *

"No…please no…Karen…don't…" Peter begged, twisted in his sheets, and tried to stop the reality of his dream but was unable to. He eventually jerked awake. He took a few heaving breaths before he curled into a tight ball against the head of the bed, pulling his knees up to his chest and burying his head in this arms. Peter struggled to calm his breathing and closed his eyes even as he tried to force the images of the nightmare away. At least he was pretty sure it was a nightmare but he was too terrified of it being real to check.

Michelle wasn't totally sure what woke her up but when she heard Peter's soft mumblings, she rolled over. Then he bolted upright in bed and scared her awake. She jumped back away from him, pulling her legs in as she cowered a bit, unsure of what he was going to do. But Peter didn't seem to realize she was there because instead of saying anything, he curled into a small ball at the headboard and hid as he struggled to control his breathing. She watched him for a few moments as she calmed her racing heart and when he didn't acknowledge her, she leaned toward him and carefully touched his shoulder. At the touch, his head snapped toward her and he fixed her with a haunted stare before he whispered brokenly, "MJ?"

"Yah…" She answered, unsure of exactly what that look was but terrified of it nonetheless.

Then without warning he uncoiled and wrapped her in a tight hug.

Michelle was crammed against his chest as he pinned her arms to the side. Surprise stilled her tongue for a moment but when she recovered she gently demanded, "Peter, you're going to have to tell me what's going on…"

Peter didn't acknowledge her statement and instead focused on her. She was alive and that was what mattered because if she was alive that meant everyone else was too. It really was just a nightmare. He felt his heart rate slow as it became easier to avoid taking gulping breaths and breathe through his nose. He buried his head in her collarbone and closed his eyes.

Michelle really did want an answer but she also was not dense enough to ignore how much this hug obviously meant to Peter. She squashed her questions and wrapped her arms around him in return.

Eventually, he calmed down enough for her to feel safe asking what the hell had happened. She pulled back slowly and felt his head drop off her shoulder. Panic hit her for a moment at his sluggishness and she quickly laid her hand on the side of his face before forcing him to look at her. Michelle used her free hand to press his hair back from where it had fallen in front of his eyes and quietly asked, "Peter, what happened?"

Peter coughed a few times before he croaked out, "It's nothing MJ, I'm sorry I woke you up."

Michelle frowned at him and quickly snapped, "Don't do that Peter, come on, you've got to talk about...whatever that was…"

Peter regarded her exhaustedly before he sighed and stuttered out, "Ok…okay…just gimme a minute…please?" He took a deep breath, pushed the heels of his hands into his eyes, and gripped his hair with his fingers. Peter needed to sort this out in his own mind before he told Michelle about it. His head was killing him but no amount of rationalization was helping so, in frustration, he dropped his hands onto the bed.

When he finally looked at her, Michelle could see the fear in his eyes. He wasn't crying but it was obvious that, what she now knew to be a pretty bad nightmare, had frightened him. She reached out and grabbed his hands where they had fallen on the bedspread. She clutched them carefully, brushing comforting fingers along his knuckles as she encouraged him to talk about what he had seen.

"I know it was a nightmare…" Peter started. He knew that if he said that enough, he would start to buy it, plus it had the added advantage of letting Michelle know he wasn't crazy.

"What happened?" Michelle prompted, thinking that Peter was trying to brush it off.

"Uh…it…uh…" Peter bowed his head, pulled their hands up to his forehead for a moment, and collected his courage. After he had swallowed back the strangling fear, he dropped their hands and explained, "It was a robbery." Once he started speaking in complete sentences, it was easier to continue, "I had a dream that Karen got notified of a robbery, nothing out of the ordinary but when I got there…when I got there…everyone was already dead." He focused his attention on the bed, knowing her next question.

Michelle could feel his grip increasing on their clasped hands. She knew the answer but still she whispered, "Who was dead, Peter?"

Peter flicked his eyes up for a moment and his voice broke on the names, "You…dad…May…Morgan…Pepper…everyone. Everyone was dead. In one robbery. Everyone died." Then his face scrunched in rage and he ground out, "The one thing I'm supposed to be able to stop took _everyone_ from me…"

Michelle heard the anger and was quick to draw his attention back to her. Pulling one of her hands free, she laid it along the side of his cheek and gently forced his eyes back to her, "No one was taken from you. We're all here, we're all okay. Everyone's okay." She begged him to believe her.

Peter knew she was right. It was obvious she was right, she was sitting in front of him but there was a lingering bite on the back of his tongue. It had been there after Ben had died too. It was the reminder that no matter what he did, he was going to lose the people closest to him in ways he should be able to prevent.

Michelle watched him question something in her statement and was struck by the reality that there were some things she couldn't help him with. This was about him being Spider-Man and Tony getting hurt, not about him losing everyone. Immediately sure about her assessment, she hurried to say, "You need to talk to Tony about this, Peter. I'll always listen as long as you need me to, but you absolutely need to talk to Tony."

Peter's suspicious gaze slipped back to her and he explained apprehensively, "He's still hurt, MJ, I can't."

But Michelle was adamant and pushed back, "Yah you can, he's injured but he's not going to break if you talk to him. And Peter, you can't wait anymore, more than three weeks without sleep is too long."

"I've been sleeping." Peter replied defensively, anger flashing again in his eyes.

But Michelle knew when she was right and she responded immediately, her voice raising incrementally as she made her point, "No you haven't. You haven't lied to me yet, Peter, don't start now. I know there was no way you were actually sleeping for the first two weeks and since I've been staying with you, the only times you've slept is when you're so exhausted that you pass out. That's not sleeping. You need more than two or three hours a night and talking to me is obviously not helping so you need to talk to your dad."

"Michelle…" Peter whined. He wanted her to stop, he could deal with this.

"Don't do that. Don't try to convince me you're fine because I know you're not." Then Michelle brought out the threat she had been biting back for more than a week, "If you won't talk to him about what's going on, I will. You know I will. And trust me, if I tell him about this, he'll be mad at you."

Peter saw the fire in her eyes, he knew she would tell Tony. She had backed him into a corner and she knew it. Peter relented, "No, don't…I'll talk to him, I promise."

Michelle had won and she had every intention of ensuring that he followed through. Still, she wasn't going to make him do it tonight and she let the confrontation melt away. She knew he was tired. Michelle reached out, took his hands again, and dipped her head down to meet his eyes before she whispered, "Let's go back to sleep, okay?"

"Yah." Peter murmured. He looked around him for a lost moment before he slid under the covers and pulled the blanket up. Then he rolled away from her and sighed into his pillow.

Michelle propped her pillow up against the headboard and leaned into it before she laid her hand on his back and soothingly asked, "Peter, what are you doing?"

"Going to sleep?" He mumbled.

"You're not going to be able to fall asleep like that." Her voice was gentle but direct.

He partially rolled over, glanced up at her, and whispered, "I don't want to keep you up anymore."

"Well then I guess it's a good thing I'm not tired."

Peter saw the bags under her eyes and he knew she was only getting a little more sleep than he was but he also saw the determination. Any argument they had, she would win. He sighed before he rolled over completely and laid his head on her stomach, his arms wrapping instinctually around her legs. She immediately slipped her hands into his hair, combing it back with her fingers. It was relaxing and gave him something else to focus on. Something real to focus on. It wasn't long before he drifted off.

Once she was sure he was asleep, Michelle dropped her head back against the headboard. She was starting to get worried. Peter had nightmares before, she had assumed all the Avengers did, but this seemed like one of the worst rashes he had in a long time. At least that she knew about. She decided to give him two days, if he didn't talk to Tony by then, she was going to take care of it. Michelle closed her eyes, the motion of calming Peter helped her relax and she felt sleep summoning. She let her eyes slipped closed, hoping to get a few more hours of sleep.

* * *

**Okay so honestly this story's almost done but I had to do a little something with Peter dealing with the fall out from the accident because let's be honest, someone who worries as much as he does is not going to be able to just handle it.**

**Also, total side note, Gregor MacGregor was actually a real person who did in fact convince the wealthy and elite of Europe that he was a prince from made up country in Central America. The long and short of it - he was a conman. But its great story if you want to read about the whole thing!**

**I hope you have a wonderful day/night and stay creative!**

**-Lily**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey everyone,**

**So I have another chapter for you. This one was definitely easier to write for some reason but it always kind of seems like those ones are also so much longer than the others! For those of you who like shorter chapters, I'm sorry!**

**Thank you to everyone who has followed and favorited my stories and as is now tradition, for those of you who reviewed, thank you to:**

**\- the amazing ****JohnGilbertVampirehunter****, Thanks :) I'm glad you liked the bit with Morgan, he's actually pretty fun to right and I figured that's something a kid wouldn't get!**

**\- the stupendous Proud Hollander, I'm so glad you liked those interactions! They were actually really fun to like so its great that they worked! Chewy on the outside and marshmallow on the inside - got it :) Okay, if you're obsessed then I'm obsessed and I don't feel like calling it that, plus it is totally a work that deserves nothing less than full engagement. And if you haven't read Tolkien's other stuff around Middle Earth - you totally should, especially the book that just came out last year on Beren and Luthien, it's adorable. I hope you enjoy this update! **

**\- the wonderful carajiggirl, Aww thanks :) I'm glad you're enjoying those relationships and I hope you like this chapter too!**

**Without further ado,**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Peter woke up the next morning feeling more rested than he had in a long time. He stretched as fully as he could but paused when his arms shifted under something heavier than blankets. He drifted a little quicker into consciousness and recognized a slight weight on the back of his head, resting mostly on his neck. He put the clues together as the events of the night before crashed into him. He'd had a nightmare. He'd woken up Michelle. She was still sitting with him. Peter stilled immediately, unwilling to wake her up if she was asleep.

"I know you're awake." Michelle mumbled.

Peter huffed and turned to look at her. She had slept propped up against the head of the bed. Guilt shot through him as he realized that her neck was going to be stiff and she probably didn't get much sleep. He slipped out from under her hand and sat up next to her. When he was settled, he glanced expectantly over at her.

Michelle could feel his gaze. She was tired but collected her wits before she opened her eyes with a smirk, determined to avoid making him feel responsible for yet another thing that he couldn't control. She took in the diminished bags under his eyes with pride and whispered, "Morning."

Peter saw the exhaustion on her face but was hit by the overwhelming urge to show his appreciation. He pressed his forehead against hers and whispered, "Thank you." He felt her close her eyes and nod gently in response. She knew what he meant, there was no reason to rehash the terror from the night before. Then Peter leaned forward and kissed her. It was tender but it conveyed everything he couldn't verbalize. All the fear and the weakness and the pain that still sat on his heart, everything that she inherently understood and calmed. And the overwhelming love and gratitude he felt for her.

When they broke apart, she laid her forehead back against his and gave a soft smile that she knew he could feel. They stayed locked in that bubble for a moment more before Peter broke it by pulling her into his chest and relaxing back against the headboard. Michelle let him, curling into his side as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and laid his cheek on her hair. When he didn't say anything else, Michelle closed her eyes and slumped against him. She really was still tired and the obvious reprieve from the night before was a welcome one.

Peter felt Michelle melt into his chest as he held her and, after a few minutes, her breathing even out as she fell back to sleep. He smiled when he realized that, it was nice to be able to help her. He shifted slightly, making sure she was comfortable before he dropped his head against the headboard and closed his eyes. He didn't fall back to sleep but he appreciated the lull. It dulled his fear and let him think with a clear head. He needed to talk to Tony, this gave him a chance to figure out what his questions were beforehand.

Peter wasn't sure how long Michelle slept but eventually she stretched in his arms before she pushed away and settled next to him. Michelle rolled her head a little on her shoulders to work out some of the stiffness and she stopped facing him. Peter was compelled to kiss her again. It was more passionate this time, more about them and less about comfort. And Michelle returned the sentiment.

They pulled apart and Peter's eyes were still closed when he asked, "Do you want to get some breakfast?"

Michelle pushed away from him and turned up her nose a bit, "I don't know if I want to cook this morning…"

Peter's eyes popped open and he smirked conspiratorially as he shook his head and explained, "I'm not talking about up here…" He trailed off, waiting to see her expression before he elaborated, "Almost everyone is still here, which means that Steve might be willing to cook."

Michelle sat back in genuine surprise and her voice reflected it when she asked, "Captain America cooks?"

Peter nodded quickly and added in a faux-confidential whisper, "Yah and he's awesome at making French toast."

Michelle's eyes lit up at the prospect and she asked, "FRIDAY, what time is it?"

"It is 9:23 AM, Ms. Jones."

Then Peter quickly followed up, "Where's everyone?"

"Agent Romanoff, Mr. Barnes, Capt. Rogers, and Mr. Wilson are currently in the training facility but are wrapping up for the morning. Dr. Strange is in the medical wing with Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner recently arrived."

Peter winced when FRIDAY mentioned his dad and he felt the slight turn in his stomach as the real world of horrific injuries invaded his morning. It had been easy to assume that Tony was just sleeping in his room with Pepper and that he would join the team for breakfast once Peter convinced Steve to cook. Now he couldn't hold onto that fantasy. With that thought, Peter also realized he had mentally been going over the list of ingredients and had added bananas to it. Bananas and syrup were his dad's favorite. That sent a stab of pain through his chest. Still he mentally shook himself, Tony wasn't dead, he was just hurt. Without active thought, Peter promised himself that he was going to pay attention to how Steve made the French toast and make his dad some whenever he was cleared to eat normal food again. Then he refocused his attention on Michelle and quickly said, "Get dressed. If we start the coffee, we could probably get him to make us some breakfast."

Both jumped out of bed and quickly threw on the first clean thing they could find.

* * *

Natasha was in the middle of an argument with Sam about the merits of convincing Steve to watch Lord of the Rings when they stepped out of the elevator to the smell of freshly brewed coffee. The conversation stopped mid-sentence as they both glanced in the direction of the kitchen. Peter and Michelle watched them from the bar stools, unreadable expressions on their faces. Natasha almost immediately understood what was going on and she smirked. She was definitely going to make out well from this blatant ploy. She eyed Steve as she waited to see if he figured it out.

"Peter. Michelle." Steve started, hesitation clear in the way he dragged out their names, but then he remembered his manners, "How are you this morning?"

"Morning everyone," Peter greeted brightly before throwing his arm out toward the coffee machine happily burbling away behind him before he announced, "We made coffee." Peter hoped that Steve would get what he was hinting at so he didn't have to ask.

Michelle waved at the four before she added, "Good morning."

Steve narrowed his eyes at Peter for a moment before he glanced over at Natasha and saw the smirk on her face. Dropping his shoulders in mock defeat, he looked back over to Peter and asked, "Do you want your usual?"

Peter nodded enthusiastically before he vaulted off the chair, over the island, and landed in front of the refrigerator, setting to work pulling out everything he needed.

Michelle watched him for a second, even after this many years, it still surprised her when he used his abilities so casually. Still, she had a job to do for this breakfast and she jumped out of her chair and hurried to help.

Steve took a step toward his room and offered, "I'm going to take a shower, if its not ready by the time I get back, you're on your own, Queens."

Peter threw up his fingers in acknowledgement but spoke to Michelle, "Can you help me clean these?" She barely managed to agree before he shoved packs of strawberries and blueberries into her hands. Then he pointed to her right and said, "The colander is two cupboards over."

Michelle dropped the packs in the sink and then pulled out the proscribed kitchen implement as she watched Peter continue to pull stuff out of the refrigerator before moving on to what was apparently the spice cupboard. She looked at the stack of stuff on the counter as she was opening the blueberries and asked, "Isn't that a lot of stuff?"

Peter glanced up at her and explained his frantic motion, "Well, Nat likes strawberries, Sam and Bucky really like blueberries, and Cap's kind of a huge fan of boysenberries. Plus they just got done with training and they always eat a lot for breakfast, especially Cap and Bucky. And…you know…me. So we have to cut up enough for them and then something for Dr. Strange and Bruce." He set cinnamon onto the counter before snapping his fingers and diving back into the fridge. He dug out the eggs and then paused and looked at her, "What do you want on yours?"

Michelle watched him with an amused smile but her gaze drifted around the room. She had only been in it a few times, but she was always impressed by the team's living room. And a large part of her acknowledged that it was nice to know that the people who protected their world also really seemed to like each other. Her returning answer was a bit delayed, "I…uh…I don't know. What'd you have?"

Peter started cracking a dozen eggs into a bowl before throwing in the spices and his voice betrayed his focus on the food when he murmured, "I usually do a mix of everything…" Then he forced his mind back and asked, "Do you want to try that?"

Michelle shrugged and responded, "I'll have whatever you're having."

Peter gave her a wide smile before he leaned over and grabbed some bananas to put on the cutting board sitting in front of her before he set to work whisking the batter.

Michelle couldn't help but laugh as she went back to cleaning and cutting.

They worked in companionable silence for a bit until Peter stopped what he was doing and turned toward the coffee maker. He pulled mugs out of the cupboard and poured six cups, handing one to Michelle, setting one next to the cast iron he had been heating on the stove, and putting the rest on the island. Then he turned back to the last of his cutting.

Less than a minute later, Steve stepped into the room, "Everything ready, Queens?"

"Yes, sir," Peter said brightly as he dropped the last of his strawberries into the bowl. Natasha stepped into the room and Michelle slipped around to talk to her but Peter hopped onto the island to watch Steve's process for making the breakfast, determined to commit the whole thing to memory.

Steve watched Peter out of the corner of his eye, the younger man had never watched him cook before, he was usually too distracted by the others but Steve could feel the intensity of his gaze now. The super soldier heard Michelle talking easily to Natasha but Peter sat silently. As Steve finished up the first set of toast, he asked, "Why aren't you with the others?"

Peter was jarred out of his intense focus and answered honestly, "I just wanted to know how you cook it right."

The conversation behind them grew a little more boisterous as Bruce, Sam, and Bucky stepped into the room followed by the glowing portal that announced Strange's arrival. Still Peter stayed rooted where he was on the counter.

Steve chewed on Peter's answer and his behavior for a few long minutes and he wasn't sure why but as he listened to the conversation behind him, he was suddenly struck by why Peter cared. After a few minutes of the batter sizzling against the cast iron, Steve asked, "You're going to try to make some for Tony aren't you? When he's cleared?"

Peter sat dumbfounded, was he really that easy to figure out?

Steve turned and saw the expression on Peter's face. He easily read the doubt and surprise before he quickly explained, "He's the only one at the Compound whose not up here, Peter. I get it." Then without offering a choice, Steve clapped his hand on Peter's shoulder and pulled him down off the island. He put the spatula in Peter's hand and proceeded to help him figure out how to know when to flip the toast as well as the best way to prepare the next batch.

Between the two of them, they managed to hand out all the, mostly, expertly cooked breakfast, replete with all everyone's favorite toppings. The conversations continued in their normal animated manner until around eleven when the demands of the day started to slowly peel them away from the living room. Eventually, only Peter and Michelle were left. They loaded the dishwasher and finished cleaning the counters when Peter revealed what he had been thinking about earlier. His voice was soft when he started, "I think I'm going to go talk to my dad…about everything..." He realized, it had been easy to hide his nervousness with the others but now he knew he needed to address it.

"Are you sure?" Michelle was hoping that he would say yes, but she also realized the potential problems with forcing him to do so.

Peter glanced up at her and nodded. He was annoyed at how nervous he was about this, he was never afraid to talk to Tony about anything but right now, it was hard to imagine placing any more demands on him and that's exactly what this would be. Peter felt the beginnings of guilt roiling in his stomach. Still, he knew it needed to happen.

"Okay." Michelle whispered back. Then she said with a soft confidence, "I'll be here if you need me."

Peter gave her a wince disguised as a smile before he glanced out the window and said, "You know it seems pretty nice out today, there's a garden out back with some pretty comfy benches if you want to read outside."

Michelle nodded reflexively as she thought about that, "Yah, that sounds nice."

When she didn't elaborate, Peter pressed a little harder, "Do you want me to show you where it is?"

Michelle shook her head and scolded, "Nope. Cause you're stalling. Stop it. I'll ask FRIDAY…or maybe I'll just wander around this super secret, heavily fortified Compound until I find a door."

"MJ…" Peter warned. She had a lot of access because of who he was but there were still places that she wasn't supposed to be. And for a moment, he was not totally sure if she was kidding.

Michelle smirked before she assured, "I'm joking. I promise. I know there are plenty of places I shouldn't be around here…even if I am really curious about it." She dipped her head and offered him one of her more suspicious looks as she said it.

Peter's eyes widened as he warned again, "Michelle…" He really would actually get in trouble if she ended up somewhere she wasn't supposed to be.

But her smirk split into a grin before she said again, "Still joking. Go talk to your dad, FRIDAY and I are gonna find a garden." Michelle answered flippantly before she pushed out of her seat. As she stepped passed him, she laid her hand on Peter's shoulder and kissed him on the cheek. Then she whispered, "It'll be okay, just be honest." Without another word, she slipped away and stepped into the elevator.

Peter sighed as he heard the cab moving up toward his family's floor. He was really only partially sure that Michelle was telling the truth about not wandering around the Compound. He wouldn't put it passed her and he was completely sure that she would be able to talk her way out of whatever situation she managed to find herself in. For a minute, he thought about going after her and then realized that she was right and he was, in fact, stalling. Swallowing hard, he slapped his hands against his knees and pushed himself up, trusting his waning determination to take him to the med bay.

* * *

When he got outside of Tony's room, Peter hesitantly asked, "FRIDAY, is there anyone in with him right now?"

"No Peter, Ms. Potts was in earlier but left to get Morgan some lunch."

Peter took a deep breath and steeled his will before he pushed the door open.

"Dad?" Peter asked as he stepped into the room. As soon as he saw Tony, everything he had been planning in his head, everything he had been thinking about fled. Instead, he was left with fear, the kind of fear that makes your palms sweat and your throat tighten. The kind of fear that made Peter want to lie about everything because he didn't want to cause any more pain.

"Hey Pete," Tony whispered, his eyes still closed, even as he turned to face the door.

Peter was driven by the overwhelming urge to get closer then, to avoid making him wait at all. Without question, he took up the seat closest to the bed. As he slipped his hands around his dad's, Tony lazily opened his eyes with a small smile and whispered, "Hey, kid. How're you doing?"

"I'm good," Peter said carefully, guarded.

Tony hummed in response and then waited a few more moments for Peter to clarify his answer. When his stubborn son refused to do that, Tony sighed and forced himself to wake up a bit more. He cleared his raspy throat and explained, "Pete, I'm glad you came down because we gotta talk."

Peter started at that statement, how in the world could his dad possibly know that? He hadn't even said anything. Still, he was oddly determined to cover himself and instead of just admitting Tony was right, Peter asked, "What'd you mean?"

Sometimes his oldest son made him want to tear his hair out. Tony knew that Peter didn't have a malicious bone in his body and this was always done out of some misplaced sense of responsibility or guilt but Tony still couldn't help but wish Peter would tone it down a bit for right now. Still, Tony needed to explain so he simply said, "You've been lying to Pepper and May…"

Peter looked down at their clasped hands, a frown breaking across his features. He could hear the disappointment in his dad's tone already, that was not how he wanted to start this conversation.

But Tony was able to read the shame on Peter's face and quickly explained, "I'm not mad, Pete. I promise. Look, I get it. I swear I do but they know you've been lying and that makes me nervous, you're usually better at hiding it than that. So what're you thinking?"

Peter dropped his head onto the mattress, leaning over their hands. So it wasn't exactly the way he wanted to start this conversation but it had ended in the same place. Taking a deep breath, he remembered what Michelle had told him, he needed to be honest. Peter mumbled into the sheets, "I was scared."

Tony could barely hear him. He was pretty sure he caught what his son said but he would need him to look at him for anything more complex anyway so Tony urged, "Come on, Pete, I'm not you, you know I can't hear you."

Peter looked up at him then and said with more conviction, "I was scared." Once he said that the whole story tumbled out, "I was working in the lab when I got a phone call from Morgan. He told me you had been in an accident, that it was bad, and he was crying so I immediately came here and from there it just didn't stop. Nothing stopped. It…just…it hurt."

Tony was a little surprised by the onslaught but forced himself to keep up as he filled in the parts he knew, "Pepper told me Morgan has been stuck to your side..." That detail had actually hurt Tony, he never wanted to scare his sons and to know that Morgan had relied on Peter had been painful because Tony knew exactly how seriously Peter took responsibility like that.

Peter was a little surprised at the concern he heard behind that statement and he tried to shrug it off, explaining, "Yah, he has been but that's okay, he was scared. I'm his big brother, it's my job to make sure that I'm there if he's frightened and so I tried to be. He just kind of stuck…" Peter trailed off, unsure of where to go.

Tony voice was compassionate when he filled in the blank, "But that also meant you had to be strong for him."

Peter nodded, tears springing to his eyes, "Yah. I think…" It was true, he knew it but he couldn't sound like he was complaining.

Tony heard the confession for what it was as the rest of the story formed in his mind and he added, "And you wanted to make sure Pepper and May didn't worry about you…"

Peter answered automatically, "Pepper had enough to deal with, she was talking to the cops and taking care of Morgan and still somehow doing everything else she does and May was helping her and I didn't want to take her away from Pepper so I just…didn't." Peter stopped for a moment before he whispered, "But I'm having nightmares again…"

Tony's eyes welled with tears as he looked at his exhausted son. He asked gently, "About what?"

Peter flicked his eyes up to Tony's and answered, "Everyone I care about dying in some stupid way that I'm supposed to be able to stop."

Tony's own exhaustion dissipated under this pressing immediacy because he saw the pain in Peter's eyes and understood it. He understood it intimately and so he quickly asked, "Peter, have you talked to anyone? About anything?"

"I've been talking to MJ." Peter said hopefully, eager to prove that he had learned something, that he knew he needed to talk about what was happening, even if he couldn't completely explain why it hurt.

Tony nodded shallowly as he took that in, thankful that Peter was at least talking to someone and he made sure to reinforce that, "Good, I'm glad that you're talking to her."

Peter looked up at him with a smile and said, "I was actually coming in here to talk to you because she told me if I didn't that she was going to tell you what was going on."

Tony's chest swelled at that. He was again reminded of how infinitely thankful he was for Michelle and he made sure Peter knew it, "Smart woman, I always knew I liked her." Then he looked seriously at Peter again, "So…you've been actually talking to her then?"

"Yah, she's been listening and trying to help." Peter answered, even as he felt his nerves building back up as the momentary reprieve of the current vein of the conversation ended.

"Good." Tony added almost absentmindedly because he was watching Peter play nervously with his fingers and with the sheets. Tony knew what Peter wanted to ask him and encouraged, "Do you want to talk to me?"

Peter looked up at him and guilty responded, "Yah." Tears sprang unbidden to his eyes.

Tony could hear the thickness of Peter's voice and it hurt. He couldn't control the few tears slid down his cheeks as he gently ordered, "Don't feel guilty, Pete. Talk to me. What's wrong?"

Peter felt all the things that had been twisting around in his mind let loose, he had been hiding them from everyone because no one would actually understand, this was something even Michelle didn't know and he took a deep breath before he explained, "This wasn't anything I could have prevented. It wasn't a threat, it wasn't an attack, it was just a stupid guy in a goddamn car." Peter looked away as he tried to gather his thoughts that weren't coming out just right. Then he continued, "You took on the world's biggest purple turd to bring me back but I couldn't protect you from something that happens everyday. Something that I should be able to stop. I don't know what to do with that. I don't know how to deal with that. I couldn't stop it." Peter paused and ran his tongue along the inside of his teeth, shaking his head a bit as he tried to clarify, "And then once it happened…" He swallowed hard as he tried to explain the rest of his problem, "Once it happened, Morgan was terrified, Pepper was scared, and there wasn't anything I could do to make it better for them. I could just be there…I was just…stuck."

Tony quickly jumped on that explanation, he couldn't let his son go too far down that rabbit hole, "That was enough, Peter. You did everything you could for your family and I am so _proud_ of you for that." Then he continued in a less rushed tone, "You can't protect everyone from everything. Take it from someone who's tried. Life happens, it sucks but it's true. I'm human. I don't have the extra long life that Thor does, I don't have the durability that you or Steve or Bucky do. It makes me weak, it makes me vulnerable and it means I'm gonna get hurt more than the others but _you_ can't prevent that. Especially when it's the real world causing it. And that's true for all of us, all your family." Tony watched Peter sit up higher, the clear signs of an argument apparent in his posture but Tony cut him off, his tone serious, "It's true. And don't argue, I'm too tired for that. Just listen to your old man." He squeezed Peter's hand as hard as he could before he continued, "For all your strength Peter, your weakness is your selflessness. You are so worried about hurting anyone around you that you forget to let yourself feel too. You can't take everyone's pain and not expect it to hurt."

Peter frowned, tears starting to fall, "I know. But it's hard to explain how badly it hurts when normal events are the cause of injuries, not our typical world ending threats. No one gets why it's so much worse seeing you injured in a car crash than on the battlefield."

"You're right, there aren't many people who would get it. And they shouldn't, that's why we do what we do. But trust me, I get it." Tony paused as he realized that Peter understood it hurt but not completely why. Tony decided to try to explain something he had figured out a long time ago, "It's because we spend so much time protecting the normal world from extraordinary threats that when the normal world bites us in the ass its almost like a betrayal. If Thanos snaps half the world out of existence, we're surprised and it hurts but we fight back. If a nobody like Frank takes away everything we have and forces us to fight anyway, it's painful and it's frustrating because it was unexpected and unpredictable. You expect dickish things from the extraordinary, we forget normal is the same way." Tony took a shallow breath before he continued with a more relevant example, "It's the same reason I will continue to build you multi-million dollar suits but I was terrified to give you your car. I can put every failsafe I can think of in your suit but no matter what I can't prepare for the normal world." Tony thought for a moment before he connected the two threads for his son, "You had to react to what the world threw at you and short of being able to prevent the problem, you came damn close to fixing everything that happened because of it."

Peter looked up hopefully at that, "Really?"

Tony would be forever surprised by the humbleness of his son and he explained with a fierceness that only a parent can summon, "Yah, really. You took care of your little brother, you made sure your aunt and Pepper were taken care of, you were here for me. What else could you have done?" Tony paused but didn't stop there because he wasn't about to allow Peter the chance to fill in some ridiculous blanks, "Short of foreseeing the accident and keeping me from going to the conference or…I don't know…creating self-driving, crash resistant cars, what else could you have done? I know you came down here right away. Happy told me that you left your senior project, which by the way would have earned you a spot in any major tech company even half finished and broken as it was, on the bench with all your blueprints and ideas open for the taking. You left your door unlocked because you crawled out the window. You didn't sleep for days, not really. And you made sure that Morgan was comfortable, you distracted him, you kept him company. You protected my wife and your aunt to the best of your abilities, and all of that you did on your own. No one told you that you had to do that. And beyond that, there was nothing else you could have done Peter. Some of this was on me."

Peter felt the tears falling freely now. Maybe his dad was right...

Tony watched the sorrow in his son's face and he hated it, he knew he probably shouldn't but he had been the cause of too much pain for too long and now he needed to do something to help with some of it. He tugged Peter's hand and whispered, "Come 'ere, kid."

Peter was caught off guard by the motion because he didn't know if it was healthy and he made sure to voice that, "Dad, I don't know if that's a good idea right now…"

"Why because half my chest is broken?" Tony shrugged with his right shoulder to emphasize his point, biting back the pain that came with the movement before he added, "It's only my left side. If you lay on my right, it'll be fine."

Peter desperately needed the help Tony offered and he was a little angry at himself for that so he made sure to voice his main caveat, "You promise me you'll tell me if I hurt you?"

Tony smiled and swore, "Promise Pete."

Peter gave in and climbed onto the bed, carefully tucking himself into Tony's side and laying his head gently on the crook of his shoulder. It was enough that Tony was able to painfully lean down and kiss the top of his son's head before he stiffly fell back into the pillow. As soon as he was comfortable, Peter broke down.

Tony held him and whispered that he was alright, that he wasn't going anywhere, that he was proud of him. And if at one point, the pain of holding his son started to make itself known, Tony simply pressed the button that would release a little more morphine into his IV and went back to holding one of the most precious things in his life. Peter didn't cry for long but he stayed curled into his dad's side.

Eventually, Peter looked up at Tony and whispered, "I'm glad you're okay."

Tony gave him a soft smile and returned the sentiment, "I'll always be here, Pete." He rubbed his hand across Peter's arm before he whispered, "Thank you for everything you did for them."

Peter nodded into Tony's shoulder as he thought about that, then he turned and looked up at Tony, "Always, dad. And thanks, for that and for being okay."

"Anytime Pete." Tony whispered as he returned to brushing his hand up and down his son's arm until eventually his injuries and the morphine finally knocked him out.

Peter felt Tony fall asleep and for a moment, debated leaving but selfishly didn't want to. Tony had told him he could stay and he really wanted to, so making the decision to be a little selfish, Peter adjusted his head and closed his eyes. He didn't quite fall asleep but as he dozed he mulled over what Tony had told him and let it slowly burn out the doubt and guilt he was feeling. It took time but eventually he was able to relax. He wasn't better but he realized that more of the weight that had been sitting on his chest had melted away, just like it had after he had talked to Michelle.

Peter stayed that way, curled into his dad's side for the rest of the night. Eventually he fell asleep.

* * *

**So Peter and Tony finally had their discussion, I hope it worked well for your guys!**

**Also, I've found myself doing this more and more as I write but I actually had fun writing the team bonding scene in this one. Normally I tried to stay away from stuff like that because I always kind of felt like I wasn't very good as writing downtime stuff but I'm actually pretty proud with how this one turned out. I hope you liked it too!**

**Also, Proud Hollander did you catch your reference?! Once that thought came to mind, I totally had to roll with it.**

**I hope you all have a wonderful night/day and stay creative!**

**-Lily**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey everyone,**

**I have another chapter for my lovely readers!**

**But first, for my awesome reviewers, thank you to:**

**\- the awesome JohnGilbertVampirehunter, Thanks :) I was pretty proud of myself for writing that so I'm glad it worked! Aww I totally would have died in FFH if Tony had been Peter's AI. I love that idea!**

**\- the wonderful MoonLightSkies16, I totally appreciate what you're saying about Peter and MJ's romantic relationship. I actually wrote a version that was more awkward but the longer I thought about it, I realized that in this little universe thing I have, they've been together since their senior year in high school and they're supposed to be seniors in college. Even if they broke up at a few points, that would still be a really long time together for having significant awkwardness in private moments. Especially for as intimate as I've been writing them acting throughout the whole story. Crying front of and actively comforting someone are (IMO) the most intimate things you can do with another person because at that point, all or most of your guard is down, so its not a leap (to me) to imagine kissing and acting romantic wouldn't be awkward. I would never write them acting that way in front of others, I think that would be really out of character, but I think in private, it's an acceptable evolution of a long-term relationship. ****I also saw FFH again and I felt like that kiss ****was a bit more than a peck on the lips, so I felt okay with that characterization. But ****I totally appreciate what you're saying and I really appreciate you taking the time to comment - I hope that this helps to at least explain my thought process. I completely understand, and accept, if you disagree with it! And you're totally not being rude at all! Stuff like that makes me think about my characterizations and that's a good thing :) **

**\- the fantastic carajiggirl, I'm glad you liked that conversation :) Those always take FOREVER to write so I'm glad it worked out! I hope you enjoy this chapter and thank you for reviewing!**

**\- the phenomenal Proud Hollander, I'm glad you caught that! I thought you would appreciate it! I also realized I threw in boysenberries too haha I think its because we were talking about that and I didn't even think about it. I'm glad you liked it and I can't believe you were reading it in between acts! I could totally never do that! You're awesome and thank you so much for reading!**

**So before I get into this chapter, I wanted to say**** I was a little unsure about the first part of this story but the more I read through and tried to delete it, the more I liked it so I figured that since its mine I would leave it in :). That being said, if it really doesn't work or you don't like it, feel free to let me know, I always appreciate the criticism because let's be honest, it helps a lot in the long run!**

**Well that's all I have for so without further ado...**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Michelle found the garden relatively easily. It was immaculately taken care of, like everything else in this Compound, but at the same time, it just seemed…out of place. It was a piece of beauty hidden away. As she walked the long rows, searching for the aforementioned comfortable seats, she couldn't help but take in the difference a few flowers made. She was in the middle of the Compound, could see it surrounding her, but at the same time it wasn't. It was a nice feeling after the claustrophobia that had been sitting on her chest. Michelle mentally shook herself at that realization. That had not been a consideration until this moment.

As she meandered through the flowers, her mind wandered. It conjured up images of the night she had found out what happened and she couldn't help but let them flow with the expressed hope that doing so would let her move on.

* * *

_She decided to take a break. She was stuck on a conclusion she was trying to pull together for a paper and instinctually she pulled out her phone. It wasn't a habit she was proud of but it was an ever present distraction that promised enough mind-numbing information that maybe she could work out how the disparate parts of her conclusion were connected. She absentmindedly scrolled through Instagram when she got a news notification about some high profile car accident. Michelle ignored it. Then a few minutes later, Tony's name popped up. It had been kind of a weird thing to see and for a moment, she assumed it was something related to his tech so she clicked on it. Who doesn't like reading things about their friends? Or in this case, her boyfriend's dad? In the few moments it took for the article to load, Michelle's mind drifted to Peter. It was a little strange he hadn't called or texted her but she brushed it off, assuming he was just working late. She had her own stuff to do and, right now, he would just be a distraction. Then the article popped up on her phone. Michelle's heart dropped into her stomach and then the whole discombobulated mess dropped to her toes. Tony had been in an accident. _

_A bad one. _

_She scrolled down the article a little farther. _

_A really bad one. _

_Once her jumbled mind started working again, Michelle called Peter. _

_When he didn't answer she tried again. _

_And again. _

_And again. _

_She called until she became so irrationally angry at his voicemail message that she yelled into it for him to call her and then called Ned to vent or to yell or to ask what the hell was going on, she wasn't sure. _

_When Ned didn't answer the first time, she growled in frustration. The entire freaking world was connected and yet all she could do was listen to their stupid voicemail messages. She hung up and took a deep breath. Then she took another and another until her rage was simmering instead of overwhelming. _

_Then she called Ned again. This time, he answered on the second ring, his voice rushed as he spoke so quickly that the connection barely picked up her name, "…ay, what's going on? Peter's not answering his phone. Did you see what happened? Do you know anything? Peter's not picking up. Why aren't you saying anything?"_

_Michelle summoned that control from before as she squeezed her phone tightly in her fist. She somehow managed to let him take a breath before she explained in a voice that would be condescendingly slow in any other scenario, "I don't know anything, Ned, that's why I called you. Peter's not answering my calls either."_

_Ned was quiet for a few blessed moments before his incredulous voice echoed over the airwaves, "Why don't you just go to his apartment?"_

_Michelle froze in surprise. That was a very practical solution that she had not thought of in her frantic quest for digital answers. She hesitated and then responded, "Right. Of course. I'll do that now. Just stay on the phone with me." She slipped on her shoes and jacket and grabbed her keys. Michelle hurried down the stairs to Ned's continual chorus of questions and comments, "So he hasn't talked to you at all? I haven't heard anything. I didn't even know anything happened until Betty texted me and then I realized it was all over the news. Are you there yet?"_

_Michelle had been slowly moving through the complex, unwilling to wake anyone up as she hissed into the phone, "Ned. It is one thirty in the morning, I'm trying not to wake anyone up and still manage to get into his apartment. Just hang on. I'm at his building." She flicked through her few keys until she found the one she wanted and slipped into the building. Her heart had somehow disentangled itself from her stomach and migrated from her toes so it was sitting in her throat as she climbed the stairs. She stopped outside Peter's door and her fear spiked when she realized it was already ajar. She slipped her keys into her fist, the teeth facing out in case she found something else untoward. In a hushed whisper, she breathed out, "His door's open."_

_She heard Ned's answering, "What? Why's his door open?", but ignored it as she pressed it open far enough for her to slip inside before she carefully latched it closed behind her. Knowing that there was no way Peter was there, Michelle reached out and deftly flipped on the light. His keys were laying on the floor near the door but there wasn't anything else immediately amiss. She whispered, "I think he came back here but I don't know if he's still here. Hold on, let me look." _

_Peter didn't have a big apartment and it was easy for Michelle to tell that nothing was moved in the kitchen to her left. There were some dishes in the sink but the food looked dry so it probably wasn't from that night. She stealthily moved over to the living room. Covertly moving to where he kept his building materials, she noticed the plastic box he stored everything in was gone. Keeping up her whispered conversation, she filled Ned in as she went along, "His project's not here. But nothing looks tossed or out of the ordinary, it just looks like he took it to work on it." Then she kept thinking out loud, "Maybe he's still in the lab?" She had meant it to sound like a statement but it came out more like a question, like she wanted Ned to reassure her that this wasn't as bad as her pounding heart was telling her it was. Then she whispered, "No that doesn't make sense…" She glanced back over at the keys on the floor._

_Then Ned broke her train of thought, "He keeps his phone with him usually, doesn't he?"_

_Michelle grumbled a little as he blew her theory farther open and she begrudgingly answered, "Yah, he does…he uses it for reference…and to call Tony if he gets really stumped…" She stepped away from the relatively clean supply corner and moved to Peter's bedroom. The door was closed and she swallowed hard. _

_Ned's nervous voice echoed her own sentiments, "What's going on MJ? What'd you see?"_

_She shushed him reflexively and then quickly answered, "His bedroom door is closed and I'm just a little worried, okay?"_

_"Well open it." Ned urged._

_"Okay, hold on." She pushed the phone into her shoulder and slowly turned the knob before she took a deep breath and shoved the door open. Immediately, she was hit by a blast of chilly night air and she threw her hand out to the side to flick on the light. His closet door was thrown open and there were clothes strewn across the floor. She gripped the phone a little tighter and repeated what she saw._

_"Well that doesn't mean anything. He's a guy, MJ, sometimes guys just don't clean up after themselves." Ned tried to be flippant to deal with his fear, it just made Michelle mad._

_"He's not you, Ned. I know he's not the cleanest but this looks different…It looks like he was…looking for something…" Michelle trailed off as she studied the clothes. They were all his work clothes, the ones he kept piled over his, "…webshooters?" Michelle whispered as she dropped to her knees in front of his closet. _

_Ned's worried voice carried over the phone again, "Webshooters? What are you talking about MJ? Did something else happen? Maybe Tony wasn't hit by a random car?"_

_"Stop talking Ned, okay, I'm trying to figure this out. I need my hands, I'm going to put you on speaker but you have to keep it down." The thought flashed through her mind that she wasn't quite sure why she was being so discreet but she was so she went with it. She started pulling stuff out of his closet, digging through the tangle of clothes he kept on the floor to make sure that if for some reason anyone went into his room, they wouldn't find the nanotech charging station without actively looking. She threw the clothes behind her, becoming more frantic when she found the charger and not the tech. Talking as she shuffled through the other things in the closet, she panicked more than she wanted to and explained in a harried voice, "Ned, his webshooters are gone."_

_"What does that mean?"_

_Michelle abruptly sat up and snapped, "I have no idea. But his suit's gone and his window is wide-open, plus his keys were on the floor and his door was cracked…he must have left. That's the only thing that would explain all this."_

_Ned's nervous voice offered another interpretation of the facts, "A conspiracy that led to his kidnapping would also explain that. I mean you said his keys are on the floor and his senior project is gone…"_

_Michelle had to give credence to that for a second but then she brushed it off, this was something else, and she hissed in response, "Ned, do you honestly think Peter wouldn't fight back? This apartment would be trashed if someone tried to come in here and grab him. No, whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing because nothing else is messed with. And since the only other person who knows where his suit charges is me, he had to have done this."_

_Ned's exasperated voice bit back, "So he…what? Just left, didn't say anything to anyone?"_

_"It would appear so…" Michelle said with a sigh._

_"But then why isn't he answering now?" Ned snapped, his own frustration clear in his tone._

_"Ned, if I knew that I would tell you. I don't know. He's not answering my calls either." Michelle knew she was doing a terrible job of hiding her fear because she could feel it on her face. This was bad. Then Ned drove it home._

_Ned's voice was pinched when he suggested, "We could try calling Tony."_

_Michelle let her head fall forward and thump against the closet door as she groaned, "Ned, seriously?" She knew he had to be acting out of fear but that suggestion did not help._

_Ned's wince was audible as he explained embarrassedly, "Right, sorry, I'm just freaking out and that's kind of the agreed upon fallback when the guy in the chair can't talk to Spider-Man."_

_Michelle pulled her head off the door and empathized, "Yah I get that but I think we need to operate under the assumption that he left. We'll just…I don't know…keep trying to call? We'll keep texting him? He'll have to answer eventually."_

_"We could try calling Happy or Pepper?" Ned suggested._

_That wasn't a bad idea but unfortunately, Michelle knew a bit more about Peter's family than Ned did and she felt guilty as she turned that over in her head before replying, "We can't call Pepper, she's in Japan right now and Tony's her husband, there's literally no reason we should bother her right now because we can't talk to Peter."_

_"But what if he was kidnapped?"_

_"He wasn't kidnapped, Ned." Michelle's empathy bled away at the stupid suggestion._

_"What about Happy?"_

_"That's not a bad idea…" Michelle trailed off as she thought about that but then she realized what he would probably be doing and said, "No I don't think we should do that either, Happy's going to be the one running point on this until Pepper gets back. And he'll have to take care of Morgan…dammit…"_

_"What?" Ned's confusion was audible._

_"Hold on, let me call you back." Michelle rushed, she didn't have time to explain._

_"Wait, MJ, what'r…"_

_Michelle didn't wait for him to finish, she just hung up. And called Peter's phone again. When there was no vibration in the room, she moved into the living room and called again. Then a third time in the kitchen. Just to be sure, she called a fourth time and wandered through the apartment. When she was absolutely sure that his phone was not in there, she called Ned back._

_"MJ, what the…"_

_She cut him off again, "Peter's phone's not here, his keys are but his phone's not. That probably means…I don't know…Happy called and told him what happened? Then he…then he took his webshooters and went back to…the Compound or one of the hospitals in the area…maybe somewhere around here? They have a house not far away, relatively speaking. Did the article say where the accident was? I didn't get that far."_

_"I think it was somewhere in New York. Tony was presenting at the NYU Engineering Conference this week."_

_Michelle felt a bit more hopeful at that, it sounded like a location and she let that hope into her voice, "Okay, then Peter's somewhere in New York...Either way, I bet that's what happened. I bet he went home."_

_"Michelle, that's so far, what's he going to swing there?"_

_"He's done something similar before…" Michelle quipped quietly to herself before she raised her voice and continued, "Ned, do you remember graduation?"_

_"Sure…" Ned's confusion was clear. _

_Michelle winced as she realized the vague description she was about to share but she still felt the need to prove her point so she asked, "Did Peter tell you what happened right before graduation? The reason why we had to go to the Compound instead of meeting in the city?"_

_"No…" _

_Michelle could hear the trepidation in Ned's voice and for a moment, she wasn't sure if she wanted to continue with this story, it was obvious Peter hadn't told Ned. Still, she swallowed, knowing he would just ask if she didn't give him something, "So, the reason we had to meet there was because Peter got hurt really bad a couple of nights before and he couldn't make it down to see us."_

_"Yah I kinda figured something like that happened."_

_"Well…" Michelle paused as she weighed her words carefully, "It...it really freaked Tony out so he made Peter tweak his suit. Long story short, Iron Spider has a booster now, he can get home just as fast as Iron Man."_

_"Seriously! He never told me that."_

_Michelle could hear the slight hurt in his voice and felt bad at the revelation but she sighed as she explained, "Yah, he's not exactly proud of it."_

_"What happened?"_

_Michelle rushed to keep Peter's secret safe as she explained, "That's not important right now, Ned. Right now what's important is that Peter is very obviously not here and Tony is very obviously hurt."_

_"Okay, then what do we do?"_

_"I don't know." Michelle could feel the tears pricking at the back of her eyes as she tried to ignore the fact that her hands were shaking. This was cracking her significant resolve. There was an increasingly desperate part of her that needed to _know_ where Peter was. A few tears escaped when she said, "Wait...I guess."_

_"Okay..." _

_Michelle could hear her own fear reflected in Ned's voice and without a spoken agreement, the two stayed on the phone for the rest of the night. Michelle stayed in Peter's apartment just in case he came back. The two took turns texting him every so often, just to let him know they were worried and thinking about him. _

_Neither slept that night and when the sun came up the next day, they were still on the phone. Eventually, they agreed they needed to work on...something. Michelle really couldn't focus and she assumed Ned had the same problem but she left him alone, opting to call him back later that night._

_It would be a full day and half before Peter got back to them and even then his response was minimal. But as soon as she saw the text, Michelle knew where she needed to be. She called a Lyft and got a ride to the closest car rental place, the ridiculousness of that was not lost on even her distracted mind. Five-ish hours later she made it to the Compound and had the creepy realization that she didn't remember the drive. But all that was replaced by the horrifying image of Peter sitting with his head in his arms at Tony's side._

* * *

As the memory ran its course, Michelle's gaze solidified back on the garden. Her meandering ways had led her to a bench. She sat down lightly and clutched her book tightly in her lap even as she was irrationally ready to spring back up at a moment's notice. She sniffled and angrily rubbed her hands across her eyes as the emotions of that day hit her hard in the gut again. She hated the fact that it was still enough to hurt but she took a deep breath as she reminded herself that everything was fine. It had been hard but the world had righted itself.

It was getting better every day. And it would keep getting better.

Michelle looked up and took in the stargazer lily growing in a beautifully manicured bush in front of her cushioned bench. The pink petals were shot through with strokes of segmented, deep red and white splotches that made each petal unique. It was just so simple and it calmed the lingering fears. Allowing her to relax into the cushions, she didn't need to spring into action right now. She just needed to make sure that she could help when necessary. And this was her ensuring she could do that.

* * *

Michelle stayed until the pathway lights started to flicker to life, until there was no chance of her being able to read by the sun's waning light. Spending the day hadn't really a conscious choice, but one that she knew she needed. The alone time let her refocus and clear her head. Without realizing how much she had needed it, Michelle took a deep breath.

It was only then that she noticed how hungry she was. She also really wanted to know how Peter was doing. She was sure he was probably still with Tony but it was possible he was back in his room. Deciding that sitting in the dark was not going to answer any of her questions or get her any food, Michelle headed back inside.

She didn't run into anyone as she got into the elevator and there really weren't many places that she could see them anyway, she was only allowed in a few areas. So she rode the elevator up to the Stark private floors. The lights were low when she stepped off the elevator and she didn't want to run the risk of bothering anyone so she didn't ask FRIDAY to brighten them. The fridge had a light.

Michelle moved a few things as she searched before she settled on some pasta leftovers from one of the nights before. Throwing it in the microwave, she unconsciously jumped up on the counter as she waited. Once it was done, she grabbed a fork and her food and crept to Peter's room even though she had a feeling he wasn't there.

She was right.

The room was empty, the bedcovers thrown back from where they had jumped out of the room earlier for breakfast and Michelle sighed as she sat cross-legged on the bed. She ate her food in silence as she contemplated on the oddly reflective day. Once she was finished, she flicked on her phone and realized that for as little sleep as she had gotten the night before she wasn't actually all that tired. And she was kind of curious where Peter was.

Snapping up her Tupperware container, Michelle dropped it in the sink before she headed to the elevator. She knew where the med wing was and it didn't take her long to get there. Michelle walked as quietly as she could, bee-lining it to Tony's room. She had every intention of not going inside but she was hoping that one of the blinds was open.

As she stepped outside the room, she huffed when she realized both were closed and for some reason, she knew why. They were probably closed to protect Peter's eyes. She hesitated, her hand hovering over the doorknob as she tried to figure out if it was a good idea for her to check on them but then she realized there was a good chance that if they were asleep, she could wake Peter up. That made the decision for her and she turned on her heel.

She retraced her steps back up to the private floor and then she slipped back into Peter's room and curled up under the covers. She closed her eyes as she tried to fall asleep. It took a little more work than she thought but eventually, she fell asleep.

* * *

Peter somehow managed to avoid moving when he woke up the next morning. He wasn't sure if it was from the inherent feeling of having slept on a hospital bed or just because some large part of him was well aware of what moving could mean for his dad but either way, he didn't.

He let himself slip back into a doze as he waited for Tony.

It was discomfort that woke Tony up. He wasn't sure why but his good arm was asleep and in his rapidly waking state that was a very bad thing. Before he could even open his eyes, Tony groaned and shifted in pain, trying to get the weight off his increasingly sore shoulder as agony ricocheted across his shattered collarbone.

Peter felt Tony waking up and started to pull himself out of his twilight sleep when Tony shifted abruptly and groaned in what Peter could only imagine was pain. As soon as that realization shot through his mind, Peter jumped up and pulled away. He scooted back far enough to sit at Tony's hip. Out of nervousness, he chattered, "'m sorry, dad. I'm sorry. I moved, it's okay, just relax."

Tony was disoriented. He knew there was a bad reason he was in pain but he couldn't quite remember what it was and in an effort to clear the confusion and headache, he tried to press his hand to the side of his head. But his arm wouldn't respond. He could feel his fingers flexing against something but he couldn't bend his elbow. Then he heard a quiet voice cut through the pounding heartbeats echoing through his skull.

Peter watched Tony bend his arm, probably with the purpose of pressing it to his head but Peter also knew that given the cuts and bruises still darkening his face, that would hurt more than it helped, so Peter pressed his palm into Tony's, wrapping his fingers around his dad's hand. It took no effort on Peter's part to keep his hand from moving, even though he kept trying, and just to make sure he didn't freak him out, Peter talked a little louder, "Dad, it's alright but you have to calm down, okay? I know it hurts." Saying that clicked everything into place. Peter reached over and fumbled with the morphine button. Once he got his hand around it, he pressed and waited the half a minute necessary for it to start to kick in.

Tony felt the relief that came with strong drugs. And as the pain in his head started to recede, it was easier to convince his eyes to open. When his hazy gaze focused, he saw the stricken look on Peter's face. He couldn't help but smile even at the worry there and he whispered, "Hey Pete…"

Peter's frown softened as the corner of his lips tugged up into something close to a smile before he returned, "Hey dad…" Without waiting for acknowledgement, Peter asked, "Are you okay?"

"…am now. Did you hit the button?"

"You seemed like you could use it."

"…did…thanks." Tony explained slowly. His tongue seemed just a little too big for his mouth but it was okay, he still wanted to talk to Peter. He fixed his slowly wandering eyes on his son as he forced himself to speak in full sentences, "...sleep better?" Well almost full sentences.

Peter smiled at that, the horror of causing pain slowly dissipating as Tony kept talking to him, "Yah I did, thanks."

Tony's eyes drooped closed for a little longer than he wanted before he opened them wide again and answered in a delayed, "Good."

Peter knew that he needed to show his gratitude now because it probably wouldn't come up again so he squeezed Tony's hand lightly in a bid to get his attention. When he looked up, Peter swallowed the lump in his throat and said, "Dad, I…I wanted to say thank you…for yesterday I mean. It helped."

"Didn't you already say that?" Tony asked softly, silently questioning whether Peter would ever just accept what he did. He wasn't trying to make him feel bad, but he wanted him understand that he didn't have to keep thanking him.

Peter balked a little and stuttered his response, "I…I…maybe…I guess I just wanted to say it again."

Tony's eyes softened and he responded, "You're welcome…anytime, Pete."

The exchange dropped there because both were too emotionally exhausted to pick it back up. Still, Tony was distinctly aware of how long he had been out and wasn't ready to stop talking to his son and he knew Peter wouldn't continue without prompting, so he asked, "So, what's been going on around here?"

Peter shrugged before he obliged, "Nothing much I guess…Morgan's been getting better at building and Pepper let me use my webbing to build the best pillow fort we've ever made…" He trailed off until he thought about the day before. He conspiratorially smirked before he said, "I got Cap to cook."

Tony's eyes widened and surprise colored his tone, "Breakfast? How? Didn't he swear off team breakfasts after Clint dumped the rest of the batter into his favorite running shoes?"

Peter nodded with a laugh before he continued, "When we ran out of bread? Yah he did. But this time, I think MJ was the key. She was with me and once Cap figured out what we wanted, I think he felt bad telling her no."

Tony chuckled at his son's assessment and added, "If that's the case, you need to bring her around more often."

Peter gave a half shrug before he explained, "If her and Nat keep getting along as well as they do, I don't think I'll be able to stop her."

Tony's eyes widened even farther in mock horror before he joked, "MJ…your Michelle…and Natasha Romanoff are…friends?"

Peter nodded with a smirk before he clarified, "I guess I don't know if 'friend' is the right word but they have definitely been talking a lot since she's been here."

"Oh god…I don't know if we can let that happen…" Tony trailed off as if he was truly contemplating the implications of a friendship between Michelle Jones and Natasha Romanoff. Still, he filed that information away for later and turned a little more serious before he asked, "How is MJ?"

"She's good…" Peter hesitated as he tried to remember the last time he had asked her how she was. When he realized he really hadn't, he blurted out, "I think…no I…I don't know." He looked up at Tony with horror before he continued, "I've been so focused on everything else…on everyone else…I didn't ask…" Peter dropped his head into his hands and scratched the back of his head, muttering, "Shit…" Then he looked around quickly, "I have ta...I have to go talk to her."

Tony saw the panic rising and he moved to stop it. He ordered, "Pete, stop. Take a breath. It's okay. She'll tell you if something's wrong."

But Peter shook his head as he looked resolutely at Tony, "Yah but…that's not fair. I shouldn't have to wait for her to tell me, I should have just asked."

Tony understood what Michelle had been doing and tried to explain, "Peter, this is what I'm talking about. You can't take on everything. She's trying to help you…Let her. It's okay that she wants to and its okay that you accept it." He thought of Pepper and added, "If you're gonna be together, you're a team. That's it. That's how it works." He tried to reframe the point, "Do you let her lean on you when she needs it?"

Peter's brows knitted together and incredulously answered, "Of course."

Tony leaned forward as much as he could, gesturing with his good hand as he explained, "Then accept that same help when she offers it. She drove down here from Massachusetts, Pete. She's still here. She's trying to let you lean on her, don't feel guilty. Accept the help." He paused before he added, "Maybe get her flowers, or take her out to dinner now that everything has settled down. Show her you appreciate it, that you don't take it for granted...but don't reject it." Then Tony quickly added, "Don't get her a ten foot bunny though…she won't like that."

Peter scrunched his nose in confusion and he was going to ignore the offhand suggestion for the sake of the more serious conversation but he just couldn't and he asked, "Wh...what? A ten foot bunny...why..." He closed his eyes and shook his head before the reason for the comment dawned on him and his eyes popped open in surprise, "You bought Pepper a ten foot bunny at some point didn't you?"

"Okay so it wasn't my best gift choice..." Tony grumbled, he had gotten more grief for that stupid dead bunny than he ever thought was possible.

Peter laughed at the ridiculous mental image of that before he deadpanned, "It probably shouldn't have even been an option." Then Peter remembered what had led to this little tangent and he sobered before he admitted, "Michelle has helping me a lot…"

Tony's pouting ended at the admission and instead he smiled, reinforcing that sentiment, "Yah she has, so respect her help and don't feel guilty about it."

But Peter wasn't quite ready to let it go just yet as he murmured, "It's hard…"

Tony frowned before he grabbed his son's hand and whispered, "I know it is, Pete." Then he let his voice build again as he defended his position, "It's horrifying to admit that you need the support. That you can't be backup for everyone but it's true." Tony sighed as he thought of something to put this to rest once and for all, "You're used to protecting other people. I mean, my god, you ran around New York in a onesie stopping crime and no one knew who you were. That's a hard life. But it's not yours anymore. You have a team of people who love you. You have a family that loves you. And you have a girlfriend who loves you enough to. Drive. Down. From. Massachusetts to have your back. You've got your support and I swear to god this is the last time I'm telling you this but...Accept it." Tony squeezed the hand he was holding to emphasize the seriousness of that claim.

Peter glanced up at Tony, appreciating the exaggerated exasperation. And what he was saying. For the second time in less than a day, his dad was saving his metaphorical ass. Peter squeezed Tony's hand in return and whispered, "Thanks, dad."

"Anytime kid." Tony paused as he gave Peter a soft smile. He let the moment flit away before asking in a much more flippant tone, "So do I have to pay for another semester or what's going on with school?"

Peter scoffed and looked away from the bed with a chuckle before he turned back to his dad, "I think you might have to…I mean I don't know if I'm going to be able to catch up after the last month."

"Yah well, I guess extenuating circumstances and all..." Tony trailed off in a drone, rolling his eyes like he imagined an infuriated parent would.

Peter matched his tone and sniped back, "I mean…if I locked myself in my room, I could probably get it all finished."

Tony narrowed his eyes as he seemingly contemplated that solution before he blew it off, "Nah…I would rather you did this right plus if I make sure you're done with the semester now, I won't be so bored."

Peter smiled broadened and he asked in mock irritation, "Well we can't have that, can we dad?" It sounded a bit more like he was talking to a spoiled child but really…

"Not if I'm paying." Tony quipped. Before he dropped his tone into something a little more practical, "Seriously though, is everything taken care of at school?"

Peter nodded before he explained, "Happy took care of it, apparently your name still holds weight for some reason."

"Ouch, Pete, that hurts. What about Michelle? Are they working with her too?"

"They are, dad, but she finished more of her classes than I did. I think she's only got one she needs to take in the summer."

"So she'll be a summer semester behind..." Tony felt guilt creeping up the back of his throat when he realized that.

Peter shrugged before he explained, "Yah but I think she's okay with it, I mean, I told her to stay at school and she came here anyway."

"Alright…well if she's not…we'll figure something out…" Tony trailed off as he felt exhaustion pulling at his mind again. He had used too much energy already and he was losing his fight with sleep.

Peter saw the tiredness pulling at Tony. He had known his dad was going to need the sleep so Peter laid his hand on his dad's shoulder before he whispered, "I'll talk to her, okay? Why don't you get some more sleep for right now?"

"Yah I think I might just do that." Tony slurred the end of his sentence just a bit as exhaustion pulled at his mind. Then he tugged open his eyes once more and whispered, "Go find your girlfriend. I'm gonna go back to sleep."

Peter smiled at Tony and laid his hand on his shoulder, "I love you, dad."

"Love you too, kid." Tony returned, his eyes closed but a smile on his lips. He heard the door snap shut as Peter left the room and as he drifted off, Tony couldn't help but think about Michelle. She had been a rock and Tony wasn't sure he would ever be able to properly thank her. But he also knew he needed to try. Unfortunately, the planning for that was going to have to wait until he could stay awake long enough to think.

* * *

**So there you go! I'm thinking one maybe two more chapters on this one before its gets to go into the completed pile :) **

**As always, feel free to let me know what you think in the reviews!**

**I hope you have a wonderful night/day and stay creative!**

**-Lily**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello everyone,**

**So this is going to be the last chapter of this fanfic. It's a longer one but I couldn't find any good breaking point that didn't separate conversations so I hope you're okay with that! Thank you to everyone who has been following this one, your support means a lot and you guys are awesome. I want to make sure I give a shout out to my wonderful reviewers. Thank you to:**

**\- the ****phenomenal Proud Hollander, Thanks for saying that about the beginning, I'm really glad it seemed to work! Haha, I'm glad you were almost late to your scene change then. And I hope she does, if she did really mess it up for other people, she should get a lower grade for that for sure. I hope you enjoy this chapter! I'm sorry its the last one though :( And yah the boysenberries! I thought you would like that! And you totally are!**

**\- the extraordinary JohnGilbertVampirehunter, Thanks :) And the bunny was a thing I pulled from Iron Man 3 because at one point Tony gets Pepper a Christmas gift and its this giant, kinda creepy looking bunny that Pepper like hates. It was just a great random thing added to the movie so once I thought about it, I knew I had to throw it in there.**

**\- the fantabulous carajiggirl, Thanks for saying that about the beginning! It was just one of those things that I wrote for myself and then realized that the more I read it, the more I liked it being there :) I hope you like this chapter too!**

**\- the outstanding wisegirlMJ, I really appreciate that! I like writing Tony and MJ because I think there would have legitimately been a level of respect and sarcasm between them, especially if Peter was involved. You'll have to read and see ;)**

**Well that's all I have for right now so now on to the conclusion!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

As the weeks went by, Tony continued to improve.

It was tedious at times and for weeks, he had trouble recalling recent conversations and events, which caused no end of frustration for him. Especially because he was never without a group of incredibly patient family to remind him of what he forgot. He tried not to snap at them when it became too annoying but he didn't always succeed. When they kept coming back anyway, it simply reminded him how incredibly lucky he was. He was able to stay up longer too which helped him to sort through the worst bouts of his forgetfulness. Throughout all of it, he never had a shortage of visitors. The entirety of the Stark family and whichever Avengers happened to be around spent almost every waking moment in his room but thankfully it was at the point where it was more about company than overwhelming concern.

After about a month and a half, Tony was able to finally stand and walk around a bit with Peter's help. Tony's arm had been too mangled for him to safely use crutches but the doctor had suggested using his good leg to help keep the muscles from atrophying and so Peter became his crutch. It gave Peter a chance to actively do something to help and the benefits of that were not lost on either of them. Tony still wasn't able to leave the med bay on his own but even that thin shred of freedom lifted his mood significantly.

It was around this time that they also found out the man who had hit him had been found guilty of aggravated vehicular assault and was sentenced to fifteen years for his crimes. None of them bothered to go to the sentencing hearing.

As their world returned to normal, the relief in the Compound was palpable.

For Peter, it was increasingly easy to sleep and while he still had nightmares, they were infrequent and he could get passed them. And the guilt he had felt initially when he was talking to Tony dissipated as his dad improved. Michelle decided to finish her class in the fall instead of the summer and when Peter pressed her on it, she refused to say why. He figured it out pretty quickly though when she stayed at the Compound instead of going back to her apartment. Peter filed that away as yet another thing to thank her for once everything finally settled down. And since both had now essentially started their summer break, it gave them a chance to work their way back to normal. The inadvertent pause also meant Peter had a chance to catch up on everything he had missed when he had been at school and he took full advantage of it. He visited May every week when she couldn't be at the Compound and made sure to hang out with the others, especially Morgan. All the while ensuring Tony wasn't bored, like he had promised.

Morgan was beyond delighted to have the full attention of not only Peter but Peter _and_ Michelle. Pepper let the pair take him into the city from time to time to try and give him a chance to work off his extra energy and them a chance to get out of the Compound.

And on one of those excursions, it was just the two of them. Peter took Tony's advice and took Michelle to dinner.

* * *

It was in that atmosphere that Cap asked Peter for his help.

Peter was running in the gym when Steve stepped up in front of his treadmill. Peter jerked back in surprise when Steve appeared in front of him but he recovered quickly and slowed down to a jog as he pulled out his headphones. He flicked his eyes to the other treadmill before he asked a little uneasily, "Do you need the treadmill? I'm almost done, can I have like ten more minutes?"

Steve came as close to he ever came to rolling his eyes and instead asked, "Peter, why would I need this specific treadmill?"

Peter shrugged as he tried to come up with an acceptable answer but he couldn't think of one at the moment so he just mumbled, "I don't know."

Steve smiled and shook his head. Then he assured, "I don't...need the treadmill but thank you for offering." His voice became more serious when he said, "But I do need your help with something."

Almost immediately, Peter was on guard. It was a visceral reaction that he couldn't ignore because he instinctually knew that if he agreed, he was going to have to leave the Compound. He was finally handling what had happened but the idea of leaving on a mission was...a lot. Still, without the excuse of school it was a little more difficult to say no, so he responded awkwardly, "Oh…okay, what do you need?" And hoped he was wrong.

"We need to go to Florida."

Peter unconsciously hit stop on the machine as he bought himself time to come up with a way to wiggle out of whatever would take him to Florida. Unfortunately, nothing came to mind and instead he stuttered, "Really? I mean…with my dad and everything…and MJ and I were talking about taking Morgan to the zoo…" He trailed off when he realized he didn't actually have a choice and it was stupid to think he did, he was an Avenger which meant he needed to act like an Avenger. He dropped his shoulders and sighed before he conceded, "When are we leaving?"

"Tomorrow morning, first thing." Steve understood his apprehensions but this wasn't something that couldn't wait. And Peter had a duty so Steve was unflinching in his subtle demand for the youngest Avenger to take up his responsibility.

Knowing he didn't have a choice, Peter stepped off the machine and promised, "I'll be there."

Steve clapped him on the shoulder and added in conciliation, "We won't be gone long and you'll be mostly support on this one. Be down at the hanger at 0600." He turned to leave, with Peter on board, he now had a full roster to prep for.

"Wait, what're we doing?" Peter called out as he watched Steve's retreating back.

Steve turned and for a moment, Peter thought he saw an apologetic frown before he explained, "We'll do the full briefing on the way but do you remember that gun running syndicate we dealt a couple of months ago?"

"The one in Europe?"

Steve nodded and then elaborated, "Well, apparently they managed to get some of those weapons out before we got there. Our job is to take care of them. We're working with the ATF on this one but we're the first line of defense." Steve saw the sadness flash across Peter's face and Steve understood it. Right now, Peter wanted to be normal and, after everything that happened, that was understandable, unfortunately, he was anything but. A small part of Steve felt guilty for asking the kid to step up but given how well prepared the group had been the last time, Steve knew they needed Peter this time. He tried to offer him some consolation though as he added, "On the up side, since its State-side we should be able to be home for dinner."

Peter gave a disbelieving smirk. He appreciated the statement, but he didn't quite believe it. They rarely were able to just finish something because there was always some kind of hiccup. But maybe this time would be the exception. He tried to hide his skepticism in his tone, "Sounds good."

Steve nodded and smiled before he added more confidently, "We'll be home for dinner, Peter, I promise." He cleared his throat and continued, "I need to finish up the briefing, so I'll leave you to finish your run."

Peter appreciated the sincere promise, it helped. He knew it was probably an overestimation of what they were going to do but he appreciated the optimism. He watched Cap leave before he crammed the headphones back into his ears. But after he climbed on to the treadmill, he just didn't feel like starting again so he hopped off and headed to the elevators. He definitely needed a shower and now he needed to talk to the others. Groaning a little as he realized what Tony and Morgan's reactions would be, Peter dragged himself to his room with all the enthusiasm of a typical high schooler going to class.

* * *

Michelle was jolted awake and as she looked around the room, her eyes landed on Peter, already in his suit. Her voice was rough when she asked, "Why are you up at…" She paused, rolled over, and tapped on her phone until it decided to light up. She winked at the annoyingly bright numbers before she finished her question, "3:47 in the morning? I thought Steve didn't need you until 6."

The eyes on the suit widened and he quickly stepped forward to explain, "Well…he called about ten minutes ago and said we needed to leave a little earlier than we initially thought. We're leaving at 4."

Michelle rubbed at her eyes as she sat up and groggily asked, "We only went to bed a few hours ago, are you sure you're going to be okay?"

Peter's smile was hidden by the mask but his voice betrayed his confidence, "I'll be alright, I'm just there to web 'em up."

Michelle squinted a little at that, he wasn't exactly one to just stay back and provide support. But it didn't matter because he was going, he needed to go, and she needed to let him focus on coming home safely. So instead, she asked, "Are you still going to be home by dinner?"

Peter shrugged a little half-heartedly before he explained, "I think. I hope...Cap said it shouldn't take long to get it mopped up. But it's us so…" He trailed off as he brought his hand up dismissively.

"Right…" Michelle responded absentmindedly before she fixed him with a serious gaze and asked, "These guys are dealing in Hydra tech, right?" When he nodded, she bit her lip for a moment before she continued, "Isn't that the stuff that used to disintegrate people?" She watched the eyes wince before he nodded again. She bobbed her head and glanced down at the bed for a moment, collecting her concern. Once she felt like she could mostly hide it, she flicked her eyes back up to him and added slowly, "Just…stay away from those beams, okay?"

Peter smirked at the concern, the eyes on the suit widening a bit when he swore, "I will, I promise." Then he pulled the mask off, his eyes dropped as he uncomfortably asked, "Can you…umm…can you tell Morgan I'm sorry again and that I promise we can take him to the zoo tomorrow?"

Michelle turned up the corners of her mouth into a soft smile and promised, "Yah I can." Then she dropped her gaze to her fingers before she figured out a way to get across her fears, "But you better be careful because I'm not going to be the one to then tell him that we can't go because your arm got disintegrated or something equally ridiculous." By the end of the sentence she had flicked her begging gaze back up to him.

Peter could hear the thinly veiled concern in that flippant statement and he nodded before jesting back, "Yes, ma'am."

"Good." Michelle answered and then tossed her head toward the door, "Go, you don't want to keep Cap waiting."

Peter leaned over to give her a quick kiss before he headed for the door. He shot her one last smile before he slipped his mask back on and pulled the door shut behind him.

Michelle fell back into the pillows and tightly closed her eyes. She only laid there for a few minutes before her mind slipped to all the ways missions like this could get Peter killed. For as often as he had done this, for as long as they had been together, it never got easier to watch him leave. Michelle trusted Peter and she trusted the Avengers but she knew enough to understand that they couldn't control everything. She rolled over and pressed her head into the pillow, trying to force herself to go back to sleep.

* * *

The day turned out to be dreary anyway so it wasn't a terrible day to skip the zoo. Instead, Michelle ended up playing transformers and Legos with Morgan while reruns of Bill Nye the Science Guy played in the background. They were about halfway through an episode on magnets when FRIDAY's voice broke over the speakers, "Ms. Jones, Mr. Stark would like to speak with you."

Michelle narrowed her eyes and glanced up at the ceiling, before asking, "Are you sure he meant me? He probably meant Peter, just remind him that he's helping Steve with that thing today." It was a little weird that Tony was still forgetting things like that but who was she to assume she knew the outcome of having a car crash into your head.

But FRIDAY was quick to answer, "He is aware, he told me to ask for you specifically."

"Alright," Michelle mumbled. She glanced down at Morgan before she apologetically explained, "Sorry Mo, I have to go talk to your dad."

Morgan's eyes lit up at the thought of going down to see him and he quickly forgot about the transformer he was messing with as he sat up higher and excitedly asked, "Can I come?"

Michelle twisted her lips a bit as she pretended to think about that before she explained, "I think I have to go on my own for this one but how about I promise I come grab you when I'm done talking to him and we can go see him together?"

Morgan took a second to consider that before he asked, "Can we take him juice pops?"

Michelle smiled at the mini-Stark before she approved, "That sounds like a perfect plan." She started to pile his toys back into the bin before she called up, "Hey FRIDAY, can you let Pepper know that I'm heading down to talk to Tony and that will mean that Mo's up here on his own?"

"Of course, Ms. Jones."

* * *

Michelle stepped into Tony's room and narrowed her eyes at the lack of people in it, for whatever reason, she had unconsciously assumed someone else would be in there with him. Without waiting to be addressed, she stood in the doorway and abruptly began, "FRIDAY said you needed to talk to me."

Tony jumped slightly in surprise at the voice but he recovered quickly and answered the inherent question in her statement, "Yah I did." He expected her come over but when she stayed standing where she was, Tony awkwardly sighed and tossed his head the best he could, asking, "Wanna come over here? I have something to talk to you about and I would prefer to not have to shout it."

Michelle closed the door behind her and stepped closer but didn't sit down. A suspicious gaze was fixed on her face as she tilted her head to the side and tried to figure out what he was going to say.

Tony sighed, this was weird and she was acting like it was weird which was succeeding in making him uncomfortable. Frustrated, he quipped, "Look MJ, I'm not gonna hurt you or anything, I just have something I want to talk to you about. Can you stop looking at me like that? It's making me self-conscious." She squinted her eyes a little more before dropping the expression, almost as quickly as if Tony had passed some kind of test. Not wanting to dwell on it, he just huffed out, "Thanks."

Michelle casually took up the chair at the side of the bed and looked up expectantly at him but didn't say anything.

That was something Tony had noticed a while ago, where Peter would talk incessantly, Michelle rarely talked unless it proved a point or was a necessary comment and nine times out of ten, she was spot on with whatever she was saying. As that thought flashed through his mind, Tony realized he was stalling. He coughed a little to buy time and then winced when the motion jarred his ribs, he knew better than to do that but he was just so damn distracted. He looked back up at the woman in front of him and forced himself to start talking, "MJ, I…umm…" Why was this so goddamn hard? All he wanted to do was show his gratitude.

Michelle looked up at him with confusion, obviously there was something he wanted to tell her but for some reason he was having trouble with it. And then for a split second, her mind wandered to Peter, had something happened? He said that they only needed him for backup and she had asked FRIDAY to give her updates but maybe...Immediately, panic wormed its way into her mind and she must have had a hard time keeping it off her face because Tony's eyes widened in concern.

Tony saw the change in her expression as it morphed from confusion to fear. He had been there before and he knew the difference an explanation could make. So he forced himself to swallow his anxiety and he dropped his guard just enough so she could see the sincerity in his eyes, he wanted her to know that there was absolutely no hint of sarcasm in what he was about to say. When their gazes locked again, he said, "There's nothing wrong I promise." He watched her fear immediately melt away, her shoulders dropping a bit from where they had been hiked up by her ears and he continued, "Look, Michelle, I just…I really need to say thank you. For everything. I know that you took care of Peter, that you helped him when he wouldn't let anyone else and I wanted to make sure that I…said thank you for that."

Michelle saw the sincerity in his eyes, and the gratitude, but more importantly she saw a side of him that intimidated her. She had always known it was there but it lurked under the surface of the bravado and confidence only showing itself when the people he loved were in danger. It was vulnerability and fear but more importantly, it was the strength to do whatever was necessary. He would have been the one to help Peter if he had been able to but he couldn't. She finally saw that unvarnished truth and she got it. She was promptly and unequivocally humbled by his gratitude and she stuttered her response, "It…it wasn't a choice, Tony. He needed my help so I helped."

Tony smirked at her, his still healing eye closing before he murmured, "That kid is luckier than I think even he knows…" Then he raised his voice a bit and explained, "You did have a choice. You didn't have to give up time at school, you didn't have to drive down, and you don't have to put up with the dark side of this life but you did, those are all choices. You could have walked away at any point but you didn't. And that…it means a lot, Michelle. Especially to me." He watched her and he felt the overwhelming need to explain exactly when he meant, so he said with complete conviction, "Thank you for helping my son."

Michelle felt the weight of that statement, of everything he just told her. It was incredibly overwhelming to have the world's greatest defender thank you with such overwhelming sincerity. She didn't know what to say other than a stuttered, "Ya…you're welcome." She scrunched her nose as she said it, that wasn't her, she didn't stutter.

The conversation lulled, neither was particularly comfortable with the emotional weight but before he could let the tone drop, there was one more question he needed an answer to, so he quietly asked, "How is he? Really?"

Michelle looked up with a soft smile, thankful she was able to give him good news. She was honest when she explained, "He's better...I swear. Trust me I would tell you if he wasn't." She shrugged before she continued, "I mean...he still has nightmares but that happened sporadically before you got hurt so, overall, I think he's good."

As much as Tony hated the comment on the nightmares, knowing that it was getting better let him relax and he sighed, "That's good to hear." Then he looked back up at her and asked, "How are you?"

Michelle smirked, appreciating the concern. She answered quickly, "I'm good too. It's been fun being here..." She winced when she thought of the reason she was there. Her eyes widened and she looked down at her hands as she rushed to correct it, "I mean...minus the whole accident thing...it's been fun being here."

Tony chuckled, he knew what she meant and his reaction caused her to look back up at him. He assured, "You're good, I didn't actually think you meant what happened was fun..." His smile dropped as he trailed off and guilt wormed its way back into his mind. He knew it wasn't his fault but there was still a large part of him that felt bad for putting his family through everything he had. Then he stiltedly asked, "What about school? You're still here so you're not taking summer classes..."

Michelle chewed her answer over for a moment before she explained, "I couldn't leave, it didn't seem right. So I'm just gonna finish in the fall, they're offering an equivalent class that I wanted to take more anyway."

The conversation dropped awkwardly there.

For a few minutes, Michelle debated leaving but every time she told herself that Tony needed rest or space, she realized that was just an excuse. She didn't actually want to leave but she also realized that they were not the best at the emotional conversations so she knew if she was going to talk to him, she needed something a little lighter. Michelle looked down at her hands for a few moments before she remembered something Peter had told her and she glanced up with an innocent look even as she asked with wickedly, "So…you bought Pepper a ten foot tall bunny? What's the story behind that?"

Tony's gaze snapped up to hers and for a split second he had a hard time processing exactly what she was asking. The juxtaposition in the conversation caught him off guard but he appreciated it nonetheless. Once he finally followed her, he had to try to figure out why she knew about it. Then it struck him and he narrowed his eyes a bit before he let the faux annoyance slip in, "Pete told you that?"

"Yah, he took me to dinner to say thank you and might have mentioned it. But he wasn't very specific..." Michelle smirked as she watched Tony's eyes narrow farther but he didn't say anything so she kept going, "Look I get it, Peter's really hard to shop for too. When all he wants is multi-million dollar superhero suits and tech parts, there's not a lot of wiggle room."

Tony scowled then and didn't even try to defend himself as he mumbled, "Yah well, its at the bottom of the Pacific right now so…" He thought about answering her earlier question about the story behind it but realized that would be too much of a concession, better to leave her and his traitor son guessing for now. Still, he was having a hard time coming up with anything to dig at her with. Until it struck him. Instead of answering the perpetually awful bunny question, he looked up at her with a satisfied smirk and asked, "How'd your trip to the natural history museum last week go?"

Michelle's face fell from smug to horrified. Her planned teasing ground to a halt and she was forced to switch conversational gears as she stuttered, "Wh…what?"

It was Tony's turn to smirk when he saw the terror on her face and then he continued, "You know...the one where you lost my younger son?" It hadn't been that bad but if he had to guess, she still was not comfortable with it.

"Uh…um…I…" Michelle waffled around on an answer until she blurted out, "I'm sorry, it was an accident." But she felt oddly compelled to continued, "One minute he was standing with us, looking at the dinosaurs, and the next thing we know, he found other animals to look at..."

Tony leaned forward a bit and asked, "And now you wanna take him to the zoo? I don't know that the live animals would be as understanding…"

"I…uh…" Michelle hated her inability to find the right words. She scrunched her nose up in frustration as she realized she wanted to apologize but there was also something in Tony's tone that made her think he was messing with her. Still she wanted to err on the side of caution but there was no real explanation, the truth was that Morgan had been standing with them at the entrance and then he had caught sight of the biodiversity hall and he walked away when they were looking at a map of the exhibitions. He hadn't gone far and they found him after only a few minutes of frantic searching but it was still enough to make her feel incredibly guilty. She went back to hurrying through an apology, "I'm sorry and it will never happen again...I swear...I…uh…I think Peter might be planning on putting one of his trackers in Morgan's shoe when we go to the zoo."

"What?" Tony asked in real surprise. That was not where he thought this conversation was going and instead he asked incredulously, "Are you serious?"

"Yes..." Michelle answered even as she sat back in her chair and shrugged. She bit the corner of her lip in nervousness when she realized that might have been the wrong thing to tell him.

But Tony just started laughing before he managed to get out, "I think he's learning the wrong things from me."

Michelle sat forward with a glare and snapped, "Wait, you're cool with this?"

Tony threw up his good hand in a dismissive gesture, "MJ, I lost him in the Compound one time, I found him playing with one of my old Iron Man masks in the lab. I'm just glad he didn't find the gloves..." He involuntarily shuttered before he continued, "He's a kid, it happens. Now if you had never found him or hadn't noticed, then we'd have a problem but he likes to explore. And he's incredibly small and fast when he wants to be." Then Tony couldn't help but get a little more serious when he added, "Just make sure you remember that for next time."

Michelle was about swear she would never forget that lesson and then redirect the conversation to something slightly less mortifying - for her - when FRIDAY's soft voice broke through the embarrassment in the room, "Ms. Jones?"

"Yah, FRIDAY," Michelle sniped, unfairly taking out her annoyance on the AI.

Tony smirked as he heard it and coughed back a laugh.

Michelle shot him a glare as FRIDAY continued, "You wanted me to inform you when Peter returned."

The atmosphere in the room shifted instantly and Michelle felt the hairs on the back of her neck prick up when she realized the implications. The hint of fear out of her tone was involuntary when she asked, "He's back already?" She pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the time just in case it was later than she thought. It wasn't. It was just past two. She glanced over at Tony and saw the same concern on his face.

Then FRIDAY answered their questions, "He is. The team is currently on its way to the med bay."

Michelle saw Tony stiffen and his eyes widened as all hints of humor fled. Michelle couldn't talk passed the lump in her throat and all she could think of were those scenarios she had imagined in the morning.

Tony knew it was standard procedure to stop by the med bay after a mission but the early return of the team and his own heightened paranoia was not helped by the scared look on Michelle's face. Tony snapped, "Is he alright? Talk to Karen, what happened?" Then he turned back to her and tried badly to cover his own fear, "I'm sure he's fine. We always have to stop by to get checked out if there's any kind of combat."

Michelle tried to take comfort in what Tony was saying but she could see the fear in his eyes too.

FRIDAY seemed to take her time before she explained, "He's in acceptable condition. There was some close quarter fighting but there does not seem to be any injuries that would waylay him for more than four days."

Tony growled at the AI then, "FRIDAY, tell my kid to get his ass down here once he's done getting checked out by the doctors."

"Of course, Boss."

Tony pressed his good hand to his eyes and whispered, "He's going to be the death of me." Then he dropped his hand dramatically and looked back at Michelle all hints of the earlier conversation gone as he all but ordered, "Go. Don't stay here with me, go find him. I trust you to tell him off for me if he somehow taught Karen to lie."

* * *

When Michelle finally found Peter, the disheveled looking group was in the hallway that lead from the hanger to the med bay. She immediately noticed he looked more than a little worse for wear. His suit was torn in multiple places and it was clear he had ended up in the thick of the fight. But he was talking animatedly with the others so it couldn't have been that bad. She ran over to him and without realizing who she was talking over, said hurriedly, "I thought you were just support." Peter could hear the fear in her voice and he was going to respond before she asked, "Are you okay?"

The rest of the team kept walking, giving the two some space.

Peter's immediate attention was on Michelle as he missed the others leaving but he watched her eyes flick across the front of his suit before he glanced down himself. It looked a lot worse than what it felt but he could see where she was coming from. He was quick to reassure her, "Yah this is nothing, these'll be gone by tomorrow, its gonna suck to fix my suit though…" He pulled at the fabric over his chest and, as it flexed away from him, he sighed at the damage.

It was then that Michelle caught sight of his arm. It was heavily bandaged but it was obvious that it was still bleeding because red was slowly creeping across the pristine white. After nearly three hours, that should not be the case. Realizing that had to have been what FRIDAY was talking about, Michelle's hands hovered over the wound and she quickly asked, "What happened?"

Peter glanced down at his arm and swore, before he explained in a placating voice, "Okay, remember the weapons you told me to stay away from?"

Michelle's eyes widened but all she could do was nod.

"I did…for the most part." Then he dropped his shoulders and sighed, "One of the guys got a shot off before I could stop him and I moved but he managed to graze my arm."

Michelle winced before she asked apprehensively, "How bad is it?"

"It's pretty much exposed down to the bone but it's been healing a bit so I think it'll be okay in a few days."

Michelle's eyes widened impossibly large and she breathily responded, "The bone? Peter..."

"I know, I'm sorry. It looks bad but it's really not that terrible." He tried to assuage her fear, he wasn't dead, it was just an injury.

Michelle saw the guilt in his eyes and realized what he was saying was completely true, it wasn't that bad in terms of the catalogue of his injuries and she swallowed as she accepted that. When taken in totality, this was something that he probably wouldn't even notice by the weekend. Knowing he was going to get some of this guilt trip from Tony later, Michelle tried to switch the conversation to something more innocuous, "What about your suit?"

Peter appreciated what she was doing. His sad voice betrayed the damage done to it, "Yah, this one's gonna be down for a bit because these repairs are going to take some time." Then he remembered what he was supposed to be doing and he threw his thumb up, indicating some unspecified place down the hallway before he held up his arm and said awkwardly, "But...I…uh…I do have to go get this looked at…" He trailed off as he waited to see what she was thinking.

"Yah I'm coming with you." Michelle answered before she turned in his unspecified direction and started walking without him.

Peter grinned and dipped his head as he hurried to follow her.

Once he stepped up next to her again, Michelle started, "Your dad wants to see you…"

Peter nodded absentmindedly as he poked at the bandage on his arm, wincing when the wound still stung. He dropped his arm and sighed, "Yah, I know. FRIDAY told me…" Then his head shot up and he looked over at her with a confused glance as he asked, "Wait, how'd you know that?"

Michelle shrugged and inwardly cringed when she realized that Peter didn't know that Tony was going to talk to her. She answered honestly but with some reluctance, "He asked me to come down and talk to him."

Peter narrowed his eyes a bit and asked, "About what?"

Michelle hesitated, she wasn't actually sure if she was supposed to say anything to Peter about their conversation. It hadn't really felt like something that Tony would want broadcast but at the same time, the two didn't hide much from each other so she decided to split the difference, "Oh you know…nothing important, mostly about you and what's been going on around here, some things about school..." When Peter narrowed his eyes a little farther, she quickly tried to switch the direction of the conversation and blurted out, "I found out you told him we lost Morgan last week."

Peter's eyes widened and he hurried to defend himself, all thought of questioning forgotten when he explained, "I felt guilty! And once we had him back I knew dad wouldn't care."

Michelle replied defensively, "Yah well, he caught me off guard…and I…still feel guilt about it so I...might have told him your plan for the zoo."

Peter leaned forward in surprise and squeaked out, "You told him I'm gonna track my little brother?"

Michelle snorted a bit and then answered, "I didn't know what else to do, I kind of panicked…You shouldn't have said anything about the museum. Or at least told me you did."

They stopped outside of the med bay room and he held the door open for her before he followed her in. He continued to defend himself, "I had to tell him…" Their ridiculous conversation continued until the doctor showed up and ended it.

Once the exam was over, Peter was told to take it easy for a few days and avoid using his arm. He needed to keep the wound clean and make sure that no matter what he did, he kept it bandaged. He was also grounded until at least a layer of skin grew back. He huffed his annoyance but the doctor pointedly ignored it when he explained that it was the best way to ensure it didn't get infected.

After the doctor left, Michelle noticed Peter's downcast look and asked, "What's wrong? All things considered, that's not terrible news."

He looked up at her with sorrowful eyes as he asked, "We promised Morgan tomorrow, didn't we?"

But Michelle smirked at him before snapping out a staccato, "Nope."

"What?" Peter asked quizzically, he swore that's what they had said the night before.

Michelle smiled a little wider at her own cleverness before she explained, "I told him this morning that we would take him sometime this week. Your missions always take longer than you think they're going to so I just figured I would hedge our bets."

Peter gaped at her for a moment before it sunk in what she had done and his gaze softened as he whispered, "Thanks, MJ."

"You're welcome." She answered back with a knowing, slightly cocky, smile.

* * *

It took Tony three long months to fully recover from the accident and another month of physical therapy before he could safely walk on his own, even with his brace. But his wounds healed and he was eventually able to escape the bed without a crutch of any kind. Peter had helped him modify the brace he normally wore to provide some more power and a lot more support. He knew he wouldn't be able to walk naturally ever again but he was able to walk and that was enough.

After a few weeks, he had the run of the Compound again.

Tony set out to find his son for dinner. Michelle had told him that he was probably in the lab but she wasn't completely sure. Tony appreciated the chance to stroll around and decided to wander until he found his oldest. Unfortunately, Michelle had been right and Tony found him easily. Tony stood in the doorway for a few minutes as he watched Peter working on something. From his vantage point, he could see the screens set up in front of his son and tried to make out what he was working on but it was different than what Tony had seen before so he decided to just ask. Distinctly aware of how much it sucked to get molten metal on your finger, Tony started speaking well back from the table, his voice quiet as he greeted innocuously, "Hey kid."

Peter didn't look up from what he was soldering, he learned that the last time but he still responded, albeit somewhat distractedly, "Hey dad."

Tony took that as an invitation and limped into the room, stepping closer to the work station before he asked, "Whatcha working on?" Tony leaned forward so he could look at what Peter was putting together. But in the few moments he had to study it, he couldn't figure it out. He just knew it wasn't Peter's other project.

Peter was so focused on not ruining his wiring that he spoke much quieter and slower than normal, explaining, "It's a detector for a car..." He trailed off as he finished attaching the wire before he looked up at Tony. His normal cadence returned as he elaborated, "It'll scan all cars in the area out to 50 meters and if there is any vehicle that is going too fast or driving erratically, it'll implement an automatic evasion plan for the car it's connected to." He shrugged before he added, "You told me the only thing I could have done was prevent the accident from happening." When Tony didn't say anything, Peter suddenly felt a little self-conscious and so he continued to talk, "It's kinda like a spider-sense for your car..." Then he amended, "Well, I guess for everyone's cars...since...this is my new senior project."

Tony had no idea what to say. Instead, he just stared at his son. He didn't realize it was possible for him to be any prouder of the man standing in front of him but he was. Then he whispered, "Peter..."

Peter heard the inflection in his dad's voice for what it as and the slight discomfort fled as he gave a bright smile in return. It was rare that he was able to render the great Tony Stark speechless and he reveled in it.

Without a word, Tony realized that Peter knew exactly what he was thinking and he was thankful for that because he wasn't sure if he would be able to accurately describe exactly how lucky he was to be able to be in Peter Parker's life. It was atypical that he didn't have anything to say and given Peter's shit eating grin, his son was appreciating the occurrence for what it was, so Tony let him have this one. Still he needed to say something so after a few moments of stunned silence, Tony eventually settled on the truth, "I'm so incredibly proud of you, Pete."

Peter smiled wider at the praise.

Tony wrapped his arm around Peter's shoulders and tugged him away from the table before he whispered, "Come on kid, it's time for dinner."

* * *

**Well that's it for this story! I hope the last chapter worked and actually wrapped everything up! This chapter was a little sweeter than I had initially thought but as I wrote it, I kinda felt like that was what it needed to be. I hope you agree. **

**As always, feel free to let me know what you thought in the reviews :)**

**I hope you have a wonderful night/day and stay creative!**

**-Lily**


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